A Beetle's Life Episode 3: Revenge Of The Slavers
by Groudon202
Summary: With everyone from his old home gone, Dim decides to go on with life as though nothing had ever happened. After the circus' latest screw-up leads to Dim and his friends being fired, everything seems even worse. Yet when a young, enthusiastic ant encounters them, having a proposition they're in no position to refuse, they set off on a new adventure - one that could fix everything.
1. No, You Can't, Please

**A BEETLE'S LIFE EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SLAVERS**

CHAPTER I: NO, YOU CAN'T... PLEASE...

And so that was that. The hornets had been defeated, Maula had met her ultimate demise (I guess even Satan wasn't immortal!), a truce had been made with Palpatine, and I had gone off with the circus bugs.

I know exactly why I had gone with them, rather than stay with the colony. While several of my fellow beetles had respected and appreciated me after I had, somehow, survived that impossible swamp chase from that squadron of drone hornets – well, that was exactly it. They began to like me because of what I had done, and I'm sure also in the hope that I could possibly end the hornet threat. But it would have died down and been forgotten about. But the circus bugs, on the other hand... they were different.

Even before the fire incident, they had clearly liked me a lot. There was the proof that they liked for who I am, not for what I've done. At the time, they didn't know anything about my past, or what I'd done. Therefore, I was a proper friend – and they were a proper friend of mine.

Having gotten back to the tent, P.T. did hear out my story, mostly from the circus bugs. He didn't seem to care much, and I was hired immediately afterwards. And so the circus phase began.

By no means, of course, was I ready to forget about the colony, or my family, or especially about Cora. With help from Rosie, we managed to arrange with P.T. that I could go and visit them once a fortnight. The circus would just perform without us that day. From then on, whenever I visited, I was greeted like a hero. Although the first few visits were spent explaining the full story of me, what had happened, and how I had undergone change, after a few visits, everyone, even the little larvae, knew the story. Cora also told me about how Maula and several other hornets had managed to invade the colony when I had deserted them. I was awestruck to hear about some strange "gas grenades" contained inside some curled-up leafs that, according to a beetle known simply as Deep-Voiced Male, "tasted like my pee."

Sometimes, when I went, it was just me, but on other occasions some of the circus bugs would come too. While we were often too busy to all come at once, Rosie was a constant companion, and went nearly as often as I did. Whenever any of went, regardless, we had fun. Occasionally, we'd persuade P.T. to come too, and host a show for those beetles who wanted to watch. Having never seen a circus before, they were thrilled, and, for a while, P.T. insisted on staying to satisfy the high demand. Of course, eventually the colony got bored of his acts, and P.T. gave up the idea.

Only a few weeks after Maula's demise, we had a new employee at the circus, a moth. Her name was Gypsy. With an elegant figure, gorgeous-looking wings, and a voice that was something of a cross between that of Berry's and Cora's, she was quite the act. It soon became obvious that Manny had a crush on her. Despite his persisting shyness, I gave his a nudge or two, and they started dating. Within a week of that, they too decided to be mated. It made me think of Cora whenever I saw them together. Like Rosie didn't already fill that role.

Rosie continued to resemble a friend, mother, big sister, and something of a forbidden love. After a while, she told me that I closely resembled her first mate, and the one she had been most reluctant to eat. I was shocked at first, but she assured me that it was unconditional, and that the urge to do so ran in her very veins. Besides, male black widow spiders only lived for 24 hours after mating.

Speaking of mating... on one of my many visits to the colony, it was the next mating season, and the time for Cora and I to shine. We had... a very pleasurable kind of fun. While we were only supposed to do it for our species, I couldn't help but somewhat enjoy it nonetheless.

And boy was I surprised. On the next visit, it turned out that she had laid several pupa's, which soon hatched into beetle larvae. There were about... 40 or so in all. We did give them names, but since I only saw my kids at every visit, I could never remember all of their names. One that I did remember was the first one. We called her Rosie. I was very proud to be a father, and I even stayed for a few days, just telling them about "daddy's big adventure" as I put it. Wisely, I altered the story slightly to make it less intimidating – they were only kids, after all!

Very shortly after that, we got two more employees. And they sure were a weird bunch. A pair of pill bug brothers, Tuck and Roll. Not only did they not speak a word of English – instead some foreign language, Hungarian, I think – but they argued at what seemed to absolutely nothing. Like I had with P.T. and with Gypsy, I did tell them my story, about the colony and how I'd turned from saving the colony for respect to saving them because I felt I had to, but it was questionable whether they understood a single word of it. I did try miming it, to some success, but I found it hard to truly explain what Maula had been like without words.

And so life continued. I visited the colony regularly, the other circus bugs and I preformed day after day (but, with three more performers, I didn't have to perform quite as much as when I started). Cora and I mated again, having a further 20 kids, for the first batch had almost left the stage of being larvae. And then one day...

P.T. had had a disastrous week, so he gave us the weekend off while he conjured up some new acts. The City wasn't very exciting this time of year, so Rosie and I decided to go visit the colony again. To our immense surprise, all the others decided to come as well, even Tuck and Roll (although they just physically tagged along). It would be Gypsy and Tuck & Roll's first time to see the colony. And that's when it all went horribly wrong...

When we arrived at the colony clearing, it was a train wreak – it looked like a twister had hit it! Not only that, but there were dead beetles lying everyone. Most I didn't recognize, but I saw the bodies of Quick, Berry, the King & Queen and Weaver. Also, we spotted several of my kids too.

As I moved between the dead bodies, I saw another one that confirmed my worst fears. It was Cora. Rushing up to her, I cried, not noticing or caring that, in the background, the circus bugs were crying too. As I cradled her body though, she strained a bit. She was still alive!

Despite having real trouble stringing two words together, she managed to get out the words "Maula's, offspring, ambush," and "trap." She almost passed away at that moment, just having time to say one last thing. She said, "don't mourn us, Dim. Continue to believe. I know... one day... we'll meet again." Her head dropped at these words, and all signs of life faded from her body.

Despite sobbing for what felt like a whole month, eventually, we went back to the circus tent. Rosie told P.T. to excuse me from work for a few days, and he reluctantly agreed. While the others worked, I just sobbed behind the wagon, too depressed to care about anything.

The night before I had to go back to work, Rosie came to talk to me. Though I was more than reluctant to listen, she asked me if there was anything she could do. I had an idea at that point.

I asked her – and the rest of the circus bugs, once she told them – to never, ever mention any of this ever to anyone ever again. Not just the recent incident, but everything about me. I told them to forget all of it, and just try to imagine that I had joined the circus under normal conditions. Rosie was clearly reluctant, but she and the others agreed.

I had to do that. I felt that... if I pretended it didn't happen... it's like it never happened. That I didn't lose all my kids and Cora.

But that wouldn't do. I still had nightmares about them, and a ghost of Maula that couldn't be hurt. Even when I tried to forget about them, they kept drifting into my mind. It was only when I was busy that I could forget about them. It was the worst kind of pain possible. While it was said there was nothing worse than death, I now knew there were worse ways of destroying an insect.

And that phase of mine might have continued forever – if there hadn't been another interruption in our lives. It seemed bad at first, then good, then bad, then good, then bad, then good, then bad and then finally brilliant. But I'm waffling. Here's the story of how I broke out of my seemingly never-ending syndrome... and, ironically, it's all thanks to a hymenopteran.


	2. Disaster For The Clowns

CHAPTER II: DISASTER FOR THE CLOWNS

Snarling briefly, I roared, simultaneously rearing on my hind legs, whilst swinging my front legs in a mad frenzy.

'Back!' yelled Rosie, whipping a makeshift whip in my direction, while making sure to keep some distance between us.

I stepped closer, making sure I didn't take my eyes off her. This was it.

'Back, you horrible beast!' she yelled as I got closer, still whipping the whip at me.

I roared again, careful not to show any signs of fear.

'I have no fear!' said Rosie. 'Hi-ya!' She whipped the whip again – and it lashed against my front right foot.

I stopped immediately, holding it up. It was quite painful.

'Oh... oh my goodness,' she said worriedly.

Bursting into tears, I fell backwards, now resting on my back on the hard ground in the belt-buckle enclosed ring. Rosie quickly dropped the whip, and scurried to my side.

Looking around, she noticed the audience booing at the performance that we had screwed up. At the booing continued, I vaguely heard Ymri finish his drum roll on a note that would have been spectacular, but I barely noticed. Rosie turned her attention back to me, while I continued sobbing. Why was I such a cry baby? I knew deep down, of course...

'Oh, I'm so sorry Dim,' said Rosie hurriedly, raising her voice over my wailing. 'Is it an owie?'

'Owie,' I moaned, 'owie owie!'

'Don't worry, it's OK,' she responded, pulling forward my front right foot and looking at it.

While she soothed my pain with nice words, I heard several of the flies – for that was all the audience consisted of today – taking flight and buzzing out of the tent.

Trying to ignore the pain in my whipped foot, I rolled, much like a tortoise, back onto my legs. Supporting me, Rosie walked with me to the other backstage entrance, as several more flies took their leave. While we walked, we heard P.T. talking.

'No!' he yelled at several more flies left. I then heard someone approaching him quickly, a fly no doubt.

'You, come here! I want my money back!' he said to P.T.

'Uhhhh,' stammered P.T.'s voice, 'no refunds after the first two minutes.' I then saw him quickly, with his standard "plink" noise, leap to the main backstage, where all the other circus bugs were, no doubt.

Just as Rosie and I went through the other backstage, I heard one of the fireflies yelling 'popcorn, stale popcorn!' No doubt he was doing it to try to keep some of the audience, as they were most probably still flying away.

Rosie and I finally made it backstage. She let go of me, and I let myself breathe.

'Sorry, Dim,' she said again. 'It was an accident.'

'I know,' I said. 'Just... go get a bandage or something...'

'On it,' said Rosie. She instantly scuttled, with her six bony, skeletal legs, off to where the supplies were kept, inside the circus wagon.

While Rosie was gone, I felt I had little better to do, so I approached the backstage entrance that we had come in by. Peeking just around the flap, I was able to see the show as it progressed.

Slim had just walked on onstage, carrying a fake flower hat again. Ymri played an exciting fanfare of a drum roll, enhancing the scene. Up in the rafters around the trapeze stood the two fireflies, but Flash was snoring himself off. Blip had only just switched on his rear light, when he noticed his dozy companion. He gave Flash a quick nudge, and Flash jerked awake, quickly turning on his rear light, and sticking it in the cone to spread the image across the ground.

Slim and Francis did a few fake dances in the midst of one of the fireflies lights, before Slim spoke up.

'La la la la la,' he said in a boring tone, moving from side to side, 'spring is in the air, and I am a flower... with nothing interesting to say.

'Ah!' yelled Francis, quickly jumping behind Heimlich, who had jumped out of nowhere.

'A bee!' exclaimed Slim – of course, Heimlich was dressed up as a bumblebee again.

'I am a cute little bumblebee,' said Heimlich excitedly. 'Here I come!'

He sloshed his way after Francis and Slim, for they had taken to running around the belt-buckle ring.

'Slow down, u flowers!' he groaned as he passed several flies in the audience, including one with a huge piece of candy corn. Noticing it, he instantly turned to face it, mouthing an 'Aw!'

'Candy corn!' he drooled, approaching the fly with his huge snack. 'Ere, ere, let me help u to finish it!' The fly instantly buzzed onto his candy corn, clearly eager to keep it.

Meanwhile, Francis and Slim were still wandering around the belt-buckle ring. It was then that some of the flies picked a fight.

'Hey cutie,' yelled one of the flies at Francis, 'wanna pollinate with a real bug!' He and his companion laughed at these words, nudging each other and clapping.

Francis surpassed a smile at these words. Turning around, he opened his coleopteran shell and buzzed forwards, landing on the edge of the empty ice-cube tray in front of the flies.

'Oh yeah,' they said, as he closed his shell and faced them, bringing one hand up to his flower hat, 'come to papa!'

'So!' yelled Francis, swinging his flower hat down in front of the fly brothers, 'being a ladybug automatically makes me a girl. Is that it, fly boy, HUH?

'Yikes!' yelled the fly, jumping backwards into his seat.

'She's a guy!' his companion yelled.

'Francis!' said Heimlich, standing beside Slim on the other side of the tent, chewing on the candy corn, 'leave dem alune, dey have poo-poo heads!'

'Not again,' moaned P.T. from the primary backstage entrance. He turned around and leaped outside.

'Judging by your breath,' yelled Francis at the flies, 'you must have been buzzing 'round the dung heap all day!

'Come on Francis, you're making the maggots cry,' said Slim, approaching the feisty ladybug. Looking up, Francis noticed a mama fly holding two fly larvae, which were brawling like children – which, of course, they were.

At this point, I felt I could not continue watching. While this didn't happen all the time, I found it a bit too sickening to watch. I pulled my head back inside the flap of the secondary backstage entrance, and I sighed.

It had been this way ever since... the incident happened. My personality had reverted to one of constant depression, and it showed no signs of fading away. My performance hadn't been as keen as it had been, and it had suffered as a result. I felt that nothing could be done to fix this, in any way. My despair was here to say.

While none of the other circus bugs had even so much as acknowledged that anything had ever happened, just as I had requested, I knew they still remembered it. They still acted kindly towards, asking if there was anything that they could do. I constantly denied it, except from Rosie, who was the closest thing I had to family now. They never said anything, but they found other ways of reminding me. I wish they would stop, but I had decided to revert to a new phase for my life.

I rarely spoke to anyone else, unless it was just Rosie and I around. I tried to never show emotion in any way – of course, that part wasn't working particularly well. This way, I could convince myself that... none of this had ever happened. I would most likely stay this way until my dying day. Then... I might find peace.

My thoughts were finally interrupted by Rosie returning. She had a bandage with her. In the haste of thinking about what I thought about every day, I had completely forgotten about my foot. However, the pain in my front left foot had almost dulled away, but I decided to put it on – just to appear normal.

Without speaking to each other, I followed Rosie around the tent to the primary backstage entrance. We would be on again, and I felt it fair it be ready to go on. How ironic...

Rosie was just pulling off the bandage, when P.T. reappeared.

'Dim, Rosie, whole troupe onstage, finale now!'

'Uh, okay,' stammered Rosie, fumbling with the bandage while I held out my front left foot. 'I just need a little time to –'

'NOW!' yelled P.T. going back onstage himself.

'Coming, coming,' muttered Rosie, dropping the bandage as I lowered my foot and scuttled onstage, going through the flap. I passed the two blue balls that were Tuck and Roll. Just as I had gone through the flap, I heard Rosie speaking.

'Tuck, Roll, let's get moving guys, we're up next.'

I heard them unroll with a pop (saying 'Ha now!'), and then them arguing with each other again.

'_Buene eska_!' said one.

'_Hai thrithi iti_!' said the other.

'Don't you understand,' snapped Rosie at the two of them, 'we are UP.'

'Up!' they responded before, while saying words that rhymed with "up", flipping themselves into a totem pole, of sorts.

'Hey!' they said, having finished their move.

'Hey,' moaned Rosie, turning around to follow me, 'they don't understand me...'

Facing me, Rosie shook her head at me, obviously frustrated at the duo. Next to P.T. she seemed to get the most annoyed by them. I barely noticed though, due to my never-ending depression.

Watching, I saw Manny doing his magician act. If was different than before, as now he had Gypsy. However, the audience's interest hadn't changed.

'Get off the stage, you old hag!' one fly yelled at Manny.

'Huh?' he responded, turning around, searching for the guilty fly. 'I demand to know who said that –' and a tomato hit his in the eye, splattering his vision. The flies that had done it laughed, clearly amused.

'How dare you!' he shouted at them – only for two more tomatoes to hit him, making him look worse.

'Ingrates,' he spat, turning around and walking away. Another tomato his him as he did so, and the booing intensified.

'Manny?' said Gypsy's voice from the Chinese take-away box that she was in, shaking as she spoke. 'Manny?' it said as the box shook again.

Several flies in the audience seemed to be arguing with each other. My attention got drawn to one particular duo, near the flies who had heckled Manny.

'I only got 24 hours to live, and I ain't gonna waste it here. C'mon' he said, buzzing off. His companion followed suit. Indeed, all the remaining flies were leaving, almost there.

'Ahh!' yelped P.T. He leaped past me and Rosie, who looked confused. He went backstage, obviously.

'I've just about had it with these losers!' he spat, as he leaped past us, carrying a big match again. He leapt onto the upturned wastepaper basket, and swung the match at the fleeing flies.

'Flaming Death!' he yelled, drawing the attention of the flies, who stopped flying away, looking behind to watch. While he gave his lecture, we all made out way to our positions. We had practiced Flaming Death, but we had never actually preformed it.

'I hold in my hand, the match,' said P.T. making his words fit with the fanfare Ymri played on the makeshift drums. 'The match that decided whether two bugs live or die this very evening.' The flies buzzed a bit closer, looking curious.

'In a moment,' he said leaping in front of the trail of matches that went through two poles, 'I will light this trail of matches, leading to a sheet of flypaper, dosed in flammable ink!' As he spoke, Francis and Heimlich jumped up and down on the bottle of flammable ink, squirting it onto the flypaper. Slim gestured to it from beside. Meanwhile, I made my way to my position.

'Aimed directly at the flypaper,' continued P.T., pointing his match upwards, 'are Tuck and Roll –' the two of them swung off the trapeze, and landed on a small stool in front of the cannon, popping open '– the pill bug cannonballs!' He then pointed upwards at me, for I was on a high stool high above the cannon.

'The cannon will be triggered by Dim –' I waved a foot, surpassing a smile –' trained to jump at the sound of this bell – Gypsy rested on top of the bell, while Manny spun the dail on it to '– in 15 seconds.'

The flies landed down on their feet at these words. I could tell they were now interested.

'Out pill bugs' only hope of survival,' continued P.T. gesturing up to Rosie, 'is our mistress of the high wire, Rosie!'

Rosie waved a bit like me, but then looked nervous when P.T. kept talking.

'Secured to a web line of exact length,' said P.T., 'Rosie will plumage down between these two posts, spinning a web of safety, in less THEN 15 SECONDS!'

The flies looked happy at these words; two of them slapped hands together.

'Not god enough, you say, huh,' said P.T. leaping back onto the wastepaper basket. 'Well, what if they were all... blindfolded!' he yelled, lighting up the match, as the light the fireflies were shining turned blue.

We were all blindfolded. Not able to see, I chuckled as Ymri struck up a drum roll. I distinctly heard the flies buzzing back to their seats to watch.

'Ladies, gentlemen,' said P.T. as he leaped forward to somewhere, 'may I suggest those of you with weak contusions, leave the arena. For this act is so dangerous, should the slightest thing go wrong –'

I heard the noise of the match being clubbed away, and the flame spreading along the matches.

'No!' moaned P.T.

'Ah!' yelped Rosie, springing down on her web line, spinning a web of safety. 'Okay, back and front, up and down...'

Next I heard Manny and Gypsy groaning, and then the bell going off.

Letting out a chuckle, I leapt onto the cannon, hearing a pill bug shoot out of it as I landed on it. Wait... one pill bug?

Shaking off my blindfold, I saw one of the pill bugs hit P.T., sending him straight through the air. Rosie finished the web and stood back – only for P.T. to fly straight through a hole in the middle. He stuck to the flypaper.

'Ah!' yelled Heimlich. 'P.T.!' exclaimed Francis, as all the other removed their blindfolds P.T. pulled off an elbow, and looked down.

'Rosie...' moaned Rosie, and the flame started to spread along the matches. P.T. squirmed and, struggling, lifted his right arm free of the flypaper.

'We need some water! Water, water, water!' moaned Slim, Francis and Heimlich, running around in panic. The flies in the audience were laughing, clearly enjoying the act.

P.T. pulled his other arm free, and then began shaking his body, trying to pull himself off.

'No! Get me out...' he moaned as the flame drew closer on the line of matches.

He shook himself free, and landed down. He chuckled, walking forwards – and then the flypaper landed on top of him and the flame, setting it all on fire.

'Whoa,' said one of the flies as the fire burned their vision.

The fire malted away, leaving a singed P.T. standing on the ground. We approached him, looking apprehensive.

'It's the web,' stammered Rosie, 'I'm sorry, it's the web...'

'You're all fired,' said P.T., still sending smoke up from himself. We all gasped, and then the clown trio returned.

'We got the water!' yelled Francis as the three of them threw the water on top of P.T. making him float around inside the big droplet.

'Here we go, P.T.' said Heimlich slowly.

The flies in the audience were actually cheering. 'Whoo!' said one fly.

'Burn him again!' said another.

* * *

**Approximate Movie Running Time: 19:15-25:03**


	3. A Stroke Of Luck

CHAPTER III: A STROKE OF LUCK

We were all sitting around a bottle-cap table at Bennett's Bar – having retreated there once P.T. had fired us. We were sitting in the same order as the first time I had came here, except Gypsy ,Tuck and Roll (in that order) were sitting between Manny and Rosie. I was the only one not talking, just looking down mostly. I was paying attention to everything going on, but barely; more so, I was thinking about the situation.

The others were all complaining about being fired. Of course, that was bad, but my previous situation was much worse. Now that I was fired, I felt even worse. We had all agreed, without actually talking to each other (if you know what I mean) that we were all going our separate ways – Tuck & Roll, Manny and Gypsy, Francis and Slim and Heimlich, Rosie and myself. I didn't want to split up, but I had long since learned that I was not the one to voice my opinion.

Watching stuff out of the corner of my eye, I saw the usual bar shenanigans; several mosquitoes throwing a dice around a bottle-cap table. On the wall, one fly said, 'Hey waiter, I'm in my soup!' Another fly near him, as his buddy struggled to not sink, said 'Hey, I've being working out – feel my wing.'

My attention got drawn to the bar, where a fly sat with a fellow grasshopper. The fly caught the attention of the bartender by saying "Yo, two black flags over here!" The bartender, wordlessly, slid two beads of the stuff down the bar to the two.

'Heh heh, a hair of the dog you bit,' chuckled the grasshopper, slapping his drink bead against the fly's one. They both then swallowed the beads in one go.

Looking around, I saw a chubby brown waiter, holding dessert on a plate.

'Hey,' he yelled, 'who ordered the poo-poo platter –' and several flies buzzed around it at a tremendous speed. The waiter put a spare hand on his abdomen, looking very disgruntled.

Not far from him, a female waiter dropped a delicious-looking cake in front of a small slug.

'Here you go Slick,' she said, sounding pretty exhausted, 'enjoy!' She then buzzed away.

Slick bent down and took a bite out of the cake – and then his mouth frothed all over; an allergic reaction was taking place.

'Ow ow!' he whined. 'Hey, I said no salt!'

I drew my attention away from them and back to the other circus bugs. It felt so weird, that the rest of the insect world could go on as though everything was normal. No. Nothing would ever be normal... not for me, anyway. I'm not normal...

'Fired by a flea!' moaned Slim, leaning back in disgust. 'How humiliating!'

'Let's face it,' mumbled Francis, looking down at the ground of the giant can we were all in, while holding a water bead, 'we stink...'

Again, Tuck and Roll were arguing, but at least they were using a language I could understand.

'_You fired_!' said Tuck to Roll.

'_You fired_!' said Roll back to Tuck.

'_You fired_!' said Tuck back to Roll.

'Oh will you SHUT up?' cursed Rosie at the pair, flexing her long, bony arms at them.

'_Hey_!' said Tuck to Rosie, sticking all six of his thumbs up in the air.

'_You fired_!' responded Roll, doing the same thing. Rosie looked away from them, putting her hands on the table while also showing obvious anger.

'Sumeday,' mumbled Heimlich, tossing a piece of food into his mouth, 'I will be a beautiful butterfly, and zen everything will be better...' Manny sympathetically patted him on the back, while Gypsy gazed longingly at her water bead.

'I can't believe the troupe is breaking up; we've always been together...' here her train of thought drifted off.

'Farewell, my friends,' stated Manny, holding up his water bead. Except for me, as I was armless, all the others followed suit.

'To the audience we'll never have,' said Francis. Everyone raised their water beads close to the center, and then brought them down again.

Slim sipped his water bead briefly, and then looked around again.

All of a sudden, two flies buzzed in the entrance of the bar, looking around. Wait a moment – I recognized them!

'Francis,' hissed Slim, bending forward, 'your boyfriends from the circus are here!' Francis wheeled around, looking rather arrogant.

Another fly stepped in – and this one was huge, a great towering hunk. Even I wouldn't stand a chance against him. Francis let out a small gasp that nonetheless drifted across the noisy bar.

One of the flies noticed us, and pointed. 'There she is!' he said.

Francis turned around again, away from the flies, trying to look normal.

The flies buzzed over – the two smaller ones landed beside Francis, just as Slim and Heimlich scuttled to the side to avoid them.

'Hello there, girly bug,' began one of the flies, swiping aside Francis' water bead.

'Shoo fly, don't bother me,' responded Francis, looking ahead with a stiff look.

'Say,' interrupted the second fly, 'why don't you tell out pal Thud –' the hunk fly landed behind Francis with a THUD '– what you said to us at the circus?'

'Yeah,' continued the first fly, 'something about... buzzing around our dung heap?' Thud growled menacingly, making Francis gulp nervously. The flies then ganged up on him.

'Ladybug, ladybug,' chanted the flies, moving his wings up and down, while Thud balled a fist into his other hand, 'fly away home!

'Ha! Not so tough now, are ya?

'All right, clown,' said one of the flies, backing a few paces off with the other two, 'get up and fight like a girl!' Slim and Heimlich leaned into Francis.

'Get ready to do the Robin Hood act,' hissed Francis to those two.

'Ooh! Ooh! I want tu be Little John!' chuckled Heimlich.

'What part can I play?' said Slim. Francis looked thoughtful at these words.

Without waiting for an instant, while the other two backed off to the side again, Francis whipped on his leaf hat, hopped onto the bottle-cap table, and faced the flies.

'Stand back, ye flies!' said Francis. Everyone in the bar turned to watch. 'We are the greatest warriors in all bugdom!

'My sword!' yelled Francis, grabbing Slim out of nowhere, and holding him forward.

'Swish swish; twang twang,' said Slim. Francis then said 'Little John!'

'What ho, Robin!' commanded Heimlich, landing beside Francis. He pulled a small fake sword out of a piece of food, tossing the food aside. 'Justice is my sword and truth shall be my quiver!'

As they advanced on the flies, they backed off a bit. The crowd also moved back, giving room.

'Jawohl!' spared Heimlich, while Francis swung Slim at the flies. The bartender watched with a vaguely amused expression.

'Hush; cherry; lunge!' spat Slim – and then Thud grabbed Slim, and snarled at him.

'Me thinkith it's not working!' hissed Francis.

'Ah!' gasped Heimlich dropping his fake sword, while Francis pulled Slim free. We all turned to run, scuttling towards the side of the bar. 'Back to Sherwood Forest! Schnell! Schnell!' breathed Heimlich.

As we ran up the wall of the can, yelling it slowly began to turn. Before we could stop ourselves, we were running on the floor of the can, as it undoubtedly rolled down the street of the city. We were all yelling, and the bar kept rolling, all the stuff and bugs in it rolling around like rag dolls.

Then, with a WHAM, the rolling can hit something, and stopped, all the stuff coming to stop in a big pile. From where I was, I slowly got up with the others, just as Francis pulled Slim from the rubble. There was a strangely heroic feel about the air; I'm pretty sure anyone watching would have noticed.

Speak of the devil; just as Francis put Slim down, and we all groaned, as Rosie said 'ow' repeatedly, a voice said 'You're perfect!' Looking down, at the base of the pile of rubble we were on, we saw a small, blue, skinny ant, looking awestruck at us.

'Oh, great ones!' he said heroically, lowering himself into a bow, 'I have been scouting for bugs with your exact talents!'

'Aw! A talent scout!' whispered Gypsy. We all crowded together, looking excited at what the little ant was saying. He was a hymenopteran, true, but I felt like we could trust him; certainly, he meant no harm to us.

'My colony is in trouble!' he continued. 'Grasshoppers are coming; we've being forced to prepare all this food!'

'Dinner theater!' exclaimed Manny.

'Fud?' howled Heimlich.

'Please!' pleaded the blue ant, crawling forwards on his knees, 'will you help us!'

We heard a groaning behind us. Looking around, we saw the fly brothers and Thud getting up.

'Where are they?' questioned one of the flies. We gasped, turning around to the ant again.

'We'll take the job!' said Slim, as we ran down the pile of rubble to the ant.

'Really?' he said – before we swept past him, Slim plucking him up. I heard Rosie saying 'We'd better hurry!' as we went outside, embracing the night air.

'You can explain the details on the way!' said Slim to the ant, placing him between my head and thorax. Suddenly Tuck jumped on next to him.

'_Hey, hey hey_!' he exclaimed – before Roll jumped on between them, chuckling in his gibberish Hungarian. I felt Rosie crawling her way onto my abdomen.

'Come on everyone, break a leg!' she said.

'Wow,' exclaimed the ant, 'you're vicious!' This seemed a strange remark, considering we were being hired to perform, but I shook it off.

'Hold on, Mr. Ant,' I said in my deep voice. I opened my shell and took off, picking up Heimlich with my legs. Francis held Slim, buzzing on my left, while Manny and Gypsy flew on my right.

'Amazing,' said the little ant, as we flew over the city traffic,' this is too good to be true!' He laughed on a repeated note as we approached the city exit.

* * *

We flew over the grass stalks, slowly embracing the glow of the sun, for it had turned to morning within a few minutes of us leaving the city.

As we flew past some dandelions, I thought, while showing a smile on my face, even though none of the circus bugs were looking at me directly.

This was probably good – if we performed well for these grasshoppers, we might get our confidence back. From there I might be able to recover from my... problem.

My thoughts were snapped by Heimlich suddenly picking up a leaf as we passed a plant, and chewing on it; his sudden movement had almost made me lose my grip on him.

Out of the corner of my left eye, I noticed the others flying – Gypsy and Manny looking very straight and Slim was moving his arm up and down in the wind.

I suddenly realized then Flik (for he had told us his name) was talking on top of me. I quickly reverted my thoughts to him.

'...So, you see,' Flik said to Tuck and Roll, 'it was my fault that Hopper's coming back. But then Princess Atta – boy, is she one in a million – she let my go out and find you! And after seeing you fight off those flies, boy, are those grasshoppers in for a big surprise!' Flik laughed again, and I heard Tuck and Roll let out identical laughs too. From knowing them, I could tell that they were forced laughs.

'_Busha bi kay be se heh_?' said Roll to Tuck. A silence followed; again I could tell they didn't understand a word he was saying. I did though. I wondered vaguely if Flik liked this "Princess Atta." Even if he did, I knew I was not to ask. That part of me had long since been finished.

We flew past the glare of the sun, and I knew we would be at Flik's colony soon. I couldn't wait.

* * *

I hadn't being paying too much attention to where I was going, but all of a sudden, an island in the middle of a dried-up riverbed appeared. As we approached, I could tell this was Flik's colony. It consisted of a giant tree on top of the island, some huge boulders on one side, and grass stalks on most of the island... A looping tree root branched off the grass stalks from the colony clearing.

I felt Flik leaning over me as we approached, and he pointed.

'This is it!' he said to Tuck and Roll. 'This is Ant Island!'

As we flew over the grass stalks, I noticed a small purple kid ant jumping up and down on a clover leaf. As we drew closer, I noticed that she was clutching a leaf wound into a spiral and that she had small wings – clearly, she was royal.

'Flik!' she cried, continuing to jump up and down, 'over here! Flik! Flik!'

'Hey,' waved Flik as we passed the purple kid ant. As we approached the tree root and flew over it, I heard her say, 'He did it, he did it, Yay! He did it!' I vaguely heard her follow up slowly by jumping from clover leaf to clover leaf.

We slowly approached the main colony clearing. I turned around in the air, and slowly came down, the others beside me.

Manny and Gypsy landed as one on my right. Slim and Francis landed on my right. I dropped Heimlich next to them before landing in the middle with a THUMP.

We all adopted a pose of receiving applause, with Rosie balancing Tuck and Roll on her arms, and Flik still between my head and thorax. Francis balanced himself on Slim's arm, and Gypsy lay in front of Manny.

Seconds passed. We heard the sound of a cricket chirping. My eyes darted from left to right. The others lost their smiles as Slim creaked down out of his pose. To my right, Manny sighed.

'Once again, our reputation precedes us...'

'Hey everybody!' yelled Flik, jumping off me and opening his arms. 'Hey, I'm back!

'Hey guys! Heeyyyy...' he yelled. I could tell he thought that some ants actually were watching us. Could that be?

'Lo-loo-Look who's here with me!' he stammered, pointing at me.

'Flik!' cried the purple kid ant, running out of the grass stalks and up to us. As she got closer, I noticed how giddy she looked. 'Flik, Flik! You're back!

'I knew you could do it!' she said, as Flik picked her up, laughing.

'Flik?' said a voice. I heard many voices, most of them murmuring surprise at our arrival. Looking around, I saw many ants emerging from behind leafs and a collection of stones behind us. They all approached, forming a crowd around us, as Rosie, Tuck and Roll got off. The crowd looked roughly about 150 ants, although I was sure there was much more in the colony. Some must be still in the anthill, I thought. The purple kid friend of Flik's looked particularly awed at me. More kids crowded around me as well.

As more ants crowded around us, Flik showed us off to the crowd. He moved around to my right, near Gypsy.

'Oh, look at this, look at this,' he said hurriedly, 'this is great, look!' Gypsy opened her wings quickly with a "POOP" making several nearby ants gasp. One of them, an old frail ant, jumped backwards, clutching his heart. 'Oh, my dicker!' he cursed.

Over a fair bit on my left, I saw Heimlich waving to several of the ants, as a light-blue, freckled kid ant and a light-purple kid ant came to up Francis, Slim and Heimlich.

'So what are you supposed to be?' asked the light-blue kid to Slim.

'He's a stick, stupid,' said his light-purple companion, with a chunky male voice, 'you hit bugs with them.

'Heh heh,' chuckled Slim, bending down to their level, 'now that's an oversimplification –'

'That's right kids,' interrupted Francis, picking up Slim, like this!'

'No no, put me down,' whined Slim, as Francis whacked him on Heimlich, causing the larva the gasp briefly. Slim winced as Francis lifted him up again.

A bit ahead of them, Tuck and Roll suddenly rolled up to a medium-blue, freckled, female ant with a bulgy chest. Strangely, she looked just like Quick. They popped open, one of them on top of the other.

'Hey!' they said, the one on top wringing her hand, and the bottom one wringing her foot.

'My,' she said, 'you just pop right open there, don't ya?' She had a soothing homey voice, rather similar to that of Berry's.

Around me, several girl kids crawled under me, including Flik's royal friend. Their antennas were tickling me, as they let out many "Wows."

'Oh, uh, kids... interrupted Rosie from behind me, bending down to their level, 'he's kinda ticklish. Let's come on out – careful!' she said, as I gave in and laughed, stomping my feet up and down, scaring the kids away into the crowd.

I noticed an old frail ant coming up to Flik, clutching a pet aphid. Judging by her flower crown, she was the Queen.

'Ha ha!' she laughed, turning to face Flik. 'Well, my boy, you came through! Aphie and I are very impressed...'

The Queen had just moved off to Gypsy and Manny – who greeted her sympathetically – when Flik gasped again.

'Princess Atta!' he said, moving forward to a figure that had just emerged from the crowd with another posh-looking ant. Atta was a slender-looking ant, with elegant looking wings, and a gorgeous face. She had a leaf tiara around her curling antenna. She looked just like Berry, and I could understand exactly why Flik really liked her. She wasn't for me, of course...

'Hey, hey guys,' said Flik to us, 'this is Princess Atta! She's the one who sent me to find you!' We all smiled in Atta's direction. She looked the most surprised at out arrival – albeit in a bad way.

'Atta, Atta,' chimed the purple kid ant, running up to her, 'did you see that really big bug over there?' She was pointing at me, and I couldn't help chuckling.

'He looks absolutely ferocious!' said the posh ant. He was a really tall, bulgy figure.

'They're out ticket out of this mess,' said a really short male ant, with a flat face.

'They came just in time,' said the ant that looked just like Quick happily.

'That's right!' chimed in the old frail ant that clutched a walking stick.

'S-So-So Princess Atta,' stammered Flik, standing in front of us, next to the ant Queen, 'Wha-what do you think?'

Atta leaned forward slightly, looking utterly perplexed, and then she whipped round to the four posh-looking ants, and began taking with them frantically. Flik and the Queen watched them, and the colony chatted vaguely among themselves. To my left, past Rosie, Slim, with a creek, leaned into Francis, and muttered, 'Mayday, mayday, we're losing the job...'

Indeed, it did look bad. I hope Atta wasn't discussing about not needing us. Unfortunately, that's exactly what it did look like. However, the council ants (as I later learned) seemed to continue to want out presence, which was good.

Biting his lip, Francis whispered back to Slim, 'we gotta sweeten the deal,' before buzzing his hard wings, quickly balancing himself on my horn with his small feet, and then calling attention.

'Your majesty!' he said, loud enough to catch the attention of everyone. The chatter died away instantly, and the whole crowd turned to watch, all of them looking excited, except Atta, who still seemed skeptical. Fair point, I thought – after all, my acting performance had slipped a bit. But this was just the act I needed to get my dignity back.

'Ladies and gentlemen,' yelled Francis over the silent clearing, 'boys and girls of all ages; our troupe here guarantees a performance like no other! Why, when your grasshopper friends get here, we are gonna KNOCK – THEM – DEAD!' He buzzed briefly in the air above my horn, as the whole colony applauded us, except for Atta again.

Slim leaned in to Heimlich as they waved, and said, 'boy, these folks are sure hard up for entertainment!'

As Atta looked around, still showing skeptical expressions, Flik glanced at her as he also clapped. She glanced at him too, even after he turned away. He seemed unnaturally cheery, rather like when I had first received applause that time I had wandered back into the crew rooms... I pushed the thought out of my mind.

* * *

**Approximate Chapter Running Time: 26:42-30:53; 31:35-34:28**


	4. The Power Of One

CHAPTER IV: THE POWER OF ONE

The Queen of the ant colony had decided to have a brief welcome party to celebrate our arrival. Since we had arrived, we'd been able to learn the names of those noticeable ants – the tall council ant was Mr. Soil, the really short one was Thorny, the female ant with a voice like that of Berry's was Dr. Flora, and the frail, old ant who clutched a walking stick was Cornelius. Also, Flik's purple-shaded kid friend was Dot. She was kinda cute, rather like one of my kids... No, wait – I mustn't go there!

Right now, several talented ants were playing a musical instrument that consisted of blow horns, a long, thick grass stalk with cut holes, so it was played rather like a flute, and a special flower to let out the music. It was so big that six ants were required to play it. They did so in perfect harmony, almost like they were trained to do so all their lives.

All of us, along with several important ants, were sitting on a special bench, made out of a stretched out leaf laid on small pebbles for support, with a corn plant in the middle. I was at the very end of the row, smiling in tune to the music, which was a cross between that of Scottish bagpipes and American pop tunes, except it sounded way more traditional and old-fashioned.

Next to me were Roll and Tuck (in that order) who, like me, were standing on the ground, rather than sitting on small pebbles. After them came Manny and Gypsy, who were sitting on rocks about the height of the pill bugs (you'd never actually notice how short they were, but a smaller body sure helped for doing gymnastics!). After Gypsy was the Queen, along with her pet aphid, who was messing about on the corn plant, followed by Flik, who was beating his hands in time to the music. Finally, after them was Rosie, Francis, Slim and Heimlich, none of whom (except for Slim) required a rock to sit on. The rest of the colony was standing in a circle around the musical instrument, numbering about 400 or so ants now.

It all seemed very... strange, somehow, that all of us expected such great things out of this. I could understand the colony's delight in satisfying these grasshoppers Flik referred to, but it was weird that we felt great about it. Maybe it was just the feeling of helping out a fellow colony worker, or something... For hymenopterans, these ants were alright!

The music stopped, and we all clapped for applause. Once this was over, we could get on to the actual show for these grasshoppers. And then... Then the good stuff could happen...

'And to make out official welcome complete,' said the Queen, reaching out with a hand, 'Mr. Soil!'

'Yes, your highness,' responded Mr. Soil, coming forward, just as the musical ants pushed the grass instrument aside.

'He's out resident thespian,' said the Queen to Gypsy. 'Last year he played the lead in Picnic!' She then laughed it off, while Gypsy smiled thoughtfully, clasping her hands around her knees.

'The children,' said Mr. Soil, for four kid ants, including Dot, waited behind with a rolled-up leaf, 'and myself, have quickly put together a little presentation in honour of our guests.' He stepped to the side, while clapping, as the kids came forward. 'Dot, Reed, Daisy, Grub.'

'Oh aren't they adorable,' remarked Gypsy in her nice, graceful voice.

'Oh, they're cute!' said Rosie cutely. While Reed and Daisy kept their female hands clasped on the leaf, and Dot waited, Grub stepped forward nervously.

'The South Tunnel Elementary School, Second Grade Class,' he said, as Reed and Daisy began to unroll the leaf, 'would like to present you with this – a mural we have drawn, of you bugs helping us fight the grasshoppers away.'

The mural showed grasshoppers running everywhere, while Francis stuck a sword through one grasshopper, Slim chased several, Rosie stomped over one, and I chewed on one. Two grasshoppers lay dead, and so did Heimlich, who had been decapitated between his thorax and abdomen. The other circus bugs were lacking from the mural entirely. This certainly changes our mission – and our outlook on the situation.

'Oh...' said Rosie slowly, as all our smiles turned to frowns faster than an atomic explosion, 'look at all the beautiful colors of the blood...'

In front of the mural, Dot gestured to the bleeding Heimlich.

'We drew one of you dying because our teacher said it would be more dramatic...' she stammered.

The circus bugs on Flik's right all let out small gasps and looked at Heimlich, whose body had turned from green to red instantly. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the creamy white of old porridge.

Before anything else happened, Mr. Soil jumped back in front of the mural, playing a note on a harp made from a leaf.

'I tell you a tale,' he stated dramatically, 'of heroes so bold – who vanquished our grasshopper enemies of old!'

He moved off to the side, as the kid ants pulled the mural leaf with them. There stood one kid ants dressed up in a leaf, along with two other kid ants. The colony stayed silent, although ants watching moved here and there. The kid ant in-a-leaf rolled his eyes and fell backwards onto the ground.

'Look,' said one of the other two kid ants, pointing at the fallen leaf-kid, 'the last leaf has fallen.'

All of a sudden, eight kid ants wearing leaf decorated to look like menacing faces ran onto the stage.

'We are the grasshoppers!' they chimed angrily. 'Where's our food?'

Who will come to save us poor ants,' wondered the second normal kid ant in a bored tone. Another eight kid ants, holding fake swords and shields that looked as though they were made from an acorn lid, ran onstage from the other side.

'We are the warriors!' they chimed in. 'Here to defend you!'

We all watched, with horrified expressions, as they play continued to progress.

By the end of the play, Slim was covering Heimlich's eyes, Francis eyes were wider than mine, Rosie had her hands over her mouth, Manny was patting Gypsy sympathetically on the back while she looked down, and Tuck, Roll and myself were just staring with open mouths.

'I die!' said the only warrior ant left, for all the other "warriors" and "grasshoppers" were dead. 'Die! Die!' He fell down onto the ground, and the colony clapped applause straight away.

Francis keeled backwards onto his shell, clearly having suffered trauma. Tuck and Roll clapped along with the colony. I could tell they hadn't understood a word of the whole play.

Mr. Soil leaped in front of the stage kids as they got up, picking up their equipment. He and they all bowed, while he said 'Thank you, thank you. Oh, thank you!'

As the clapping started to die down, myself, Manny and Gypsy glanced over at the others, who were on the other side of Flik. Rosie helped Francis up, as they began frantically talking among each other. We couldn't hear what they were saying, and I bet my soul Flik couldn't either.

'Okay, honey, you're up, said the Queen to Atta.

'Oh, um... stalled Atta, realizing that attention was now drawn to her. She seemed very much of a nervous wreck but, then again, training to be a Queen was quite an ordeal.

'Um...' began Atta, 'we're all very, very grateful to have –' Flik slipped a megaphone made of a stick stuck through a wound-up grass stalk into Atta hands, which magnified her voice so that the whole colony could hear '– the warriors...' She received brief cheers of amusement, while she glanced down at the megaphone, then at Flik. He backed away slowly, giving her a double thumbs-up.

'Thanks...' she said out of the side of her mouth to him. She then readied the grass megaphone again.

'First of all,' she said to the crowd, 'I'd like to thank the warriors –' on the other side, Heimlich, Slim, Francis and Rosie were frantically talking together, clearly worried '– for helping us in our fight against the grasshoppers.' The crowd clapped briefly, and then Atta continued.

'Secondly,' she said, 'I'd like to thank FLIK –' she directed her attention to Flik, who waved enthusiastically '– for his forthright thinking.' Flik then swiped the megaphone out of Atta's grasp, speaking himself.

'Thank you, your highness,' he said, leaping over the grass bench. 'Oh sure, I'd like to take credit for all of this, but, well that wouldn't be right. Because it was you Princess Atta,' he said, gesturing to her, 'you believed in me, and you sent me on my quest.' I noticed that Atta squirmed slightly at these words. It was almost as though she felt guilt. Had she sent him off just to get rid of him? Was this all a mistake? Over on the other side, the others seemed to have reached a conclusion, as Rosie said what seemed to be "OK" to the others, and then walked over to Flik.

'Now,' continued Flik, 'I know I've made a lot of mistakes in the past, and I hope this will make up –' Rosie tapped him the shoulder and said "Flik!" rather angrily. He whispered back 'not right now Rosie, I-I'm making a speech.' Rosie sighed angrily (she was as hot and sexy as ever!) and leaned up to whisper something in his ear.

'Now I truly believe that these bugs are the answer to our –' he then whispered something back to Rosie, who then crept back to the other circus bugs '– so, I... huh?' He stopped short, and then looked over at the clown trio and Rosie.

Francis juggled several hand-sized pebbles briefly, and then the four of them all adopted a "Ta-Da" pose.

I almost could have sworn Flik felt as though something from far away smacked him in the face at a tremendous speed. He paused briefly in humongous shock, before he burst into action.

'Your highness!' he said, tossing the megaphone into the air, and, while knocking over several objects, scrambling over the grass bench to Atta again. 'The warriors have called for a secret meeting for circus-um, circumventing, the oncoming horror so they can trapeze-trap them with ease!'

'Shouldn't I come too?' questioned Atta.

'No!' he said, letting out a brief forced laugh. While he was talking, the other circus bugs, along with my group, made out way around the grass bench. 'Sorry, see, it's classified in the D.M.C., gotta go A.S.A.P. You know, strictly, B.Y.O.B., bye!' He then scuttled around with us, clearly nervous, but at least he was hiding it well – the rest of looked extremely shifty.

'Sorry,' he said as we walked through the crowd, 'sorry that I've got to take the warriors away so early, but uh... you know they have a lot to get done, with the battle looming and all. So please, everyone enjoy the party!'

We had made our way through the crowd by now (Flik was saying 'Thanks again, bye, bye-bye!'), and we quickly jogged to a path off the clearing. All the other circus bugs quickly ran into the grass stalks, until only Flik and I were left. I wasn't sure we should be doing this...

'Just-just get in there,' Flik said pushing on me, 'go, go-go-go!' Without giving it a second thought, I scuttled in after the others. We had only just turned to face Flik when he jumped in.

'Circus bugs!' Flik gasped, coming up to us. 'How can you be circus bugs?' We all returned words of resent and similar surprise.

'Hey,' interjected Francis, 'you said nothing about killing grasshoppers, pal – you lied to us!'

'Ja!' agreed Heimlich. We all looked pretty angry, but Rosie the most. After all, she was a fiery and sexy black widow spider!

'Are you kidding?' Flik responded. 'Do you know what this is? This, my friends, is false advertising!'

'How dare you!' said Manny angrily, stepping forwards.

'You, sir,' Manny hissed angrily at Flik, 'are the characin of this scenario, touting your wares as a talent scout –' Manny gestures to us as he said the next part '– praying upon the hungry souls of hapless artistes!

'Good day to you sir,' he finished. We all turned away and walked off, Tuck and Roll hanging back for a second before they rolled beside us. We had only walked about two paces before –

'Wait! No-no, wait-wait-wait-wait-wait, you can't go!' breathed Flik, catching up to us. He ran in front of us, and we stopped walking.

'You have got to help me! Give me some time; I'll come up with a plan!'

'Just go tell dem ze truth!' shrugged Heimlich.

'They can't! They can't know the truth; the truth-you-see-is-bad!' he said, shaking Heimlich's head briefly. 'I will be branded with this mistake for the rest of my life!' As he talked, he moved in between us, now at Rosie, Gypsy and Manny.

'My children's CHILDREN will walk down the street and people will point and say "look! There goes the spawn of Flik, the loser!"' He was now next to me, and seemed really defeated.

'Oh, you know, all right, fine. Yeah, OK. Just go.' He crawled down near my feet. 'But if you could – just do me a little favor before you leave, um...

'If you could just –' he placed himself under one of my feet '– squish me.' I moved my eyes left and right as he spoke, wondering what on earth he was doing.

'That would be great, because, uh... when they find out, I'm as good as dead...'

'Flik?' said a voice from far off that I recognized as Atta's. Flik got himself up from under my front right foot, and ran back to the others. We all looked at each other.

'Let's go now!' hissed Francis. All the others nodded, but I didn't. I felt that, for once, it was my time to actually speak.

'But he needs help...' I stammered. It wasn't just that – it was also a futile-seeming attempt to reprise my dignity again.

'You want to duel some 20 grasshoppers?' asked Rosie impatiently. I instantly stopped talking at these words.

Without arguing, we all turned and jogged away quickly. That was it. It had all been a mistake. We'd leave, and forget all about this, and just split up like we had planned.

We had only just started to walk away, when we heard Flik's voice again.

'Wait! Wait-wait-wait, please, don't go!' he yelled. He was catching up, but we had reached a boulder handing off the edge of Ant Island. Rosie, Tuck & Roll quickly scrambled aboard me, and Francis grabbed Slim. Gypsy and Manny braced their wings.

'Wait! Wait-wait-wait, please, don't go! Nooo!' he yelled, as I picked up Heimlich with my wings, and took off, Gypsy and Manny beside me, Francis and Slim behind me.

'You can't go!' Flik cried, grabbing onto Slim as Francis flew him over the edge. 'I'm desperate!'

'Really,' responded Slim, looking down at Flik, 'I couldn't tell!'

We flew over the riverbed, Flik swinging back and forth on Slim's legs. He whined as we approached a small clearing on the other side.

'No!' he cried as we lost altitude. I wanted to say something, but now was not my time. The others weren't so nice.

'OK, Flik, time to put you down now,' said Slim. 'Get him off me,' he strained, as Francis struggled with Slim, 'he's cutting off the circulation to my foot!'

Manny, in the shadow of Ant Island's tree, grabbed Flik from the ground and pulled on his legs. 'Let go!' he said, as Flik maintained his grip. Francis struggled to pull Slim off Flik from above, while Manny did the same from below. All the time, Flik was moaning, 'no-no-no, please, don't go...'

'Put the stick down,' said Rosie irritably to Flik from on top of me, 'Flik, I mean it now! Drop the stick...' Panic suddenly spread over Flik's face, and just as Rosie said 'Drop it...' again, Flik, yelling, let go of Slim (sending Manny to the ground) and ran off at a tremendous speed.

'Run!' he said as he started to run back across the riverbed. We all landed down again, watching him as he got smaller. Rosie still seemed irritated at him, but he was now gone.

'Boy,' remarked Heimlich, 'he runs fast fur a little guy –' and then SOMETHING landed behind us. Almost jumping, we slowly turned around as it made a "squawk."

It was a bright, orange bird, about ten times bigger than even me. No wonder Flik had run. It stared at us, flexing its talons. It let out a loud cry that pierced the air.

'_Tweet tweet! Tweet tweet_!' cried Tuck and Roll, pointing at it.

We all immediately ran for it; me, Francis, Gypsy and Manny were flying, Slim and Rosie were running, Tuck & Roll were rolling, and Heimlich was leaping his huge leaps. As we yelled and ran, we heard it cry again, leaping forward a pace or two. We could see Flik, and he was just ahead of us. Tuck and Roll were still yelling '_Tweet tweet! Tweet tweet_!'

As we started to cross the riverbed, we heard the bird flying right behind us. But it flew upwards instead. Looking up as we kept running, we saw it aiming straight for a dandelion stalk floating in the air. I could just about make out someone clinging to it.

'Flik!' cried the figure. I realized who it was – it was Dot.

As we ran further, the bird made straight for Dot. It yelled, and she screamed. She let go just as the bird got the dandelion stalk. She fell through the air, yelling and screaming.

Behind me, I heard Francis suddenly yelling 'Wow! I gotcha, I gotcha! I gotcha, I gotcha – and then a thump, followed by the bird cawing. Francis yelled before moaning, and then brief silence fell.

We finally all reached a big rock. Scuttling, we all ducked behind it. Flik, Slim and Manny leaned over the rock, watching the bird trying to reach inside the creek in the riverbed where Dot and Flik were trapped. I kept hearing her yelling 'Flik!'

'Good heavens, they're in trouble!' remarked Manny.

'Francis-Francis-Francis-Francis-Francis-Francis-Francis-Francis,' chimed Slim over and over, before Flik grabbed a hand of both of them each.

'You guys, I've got an idea!'

Flik quickly explained the plan to us. I thought it was risky, but, given the circumstances, I'm game!

Slim, Gypsy and Heimlich sneaked off to where they would do their part. While we were waiting, Flik and Manny readied themselves on top of me. I grasped Rosie with my legs, while she quickly wound a net of web. Tuck and Roll grasped it by the sides. We were ready – all we needed was Heimlich's signal.

Slim held Heimlich above his head a good distance away from the bird.

'Yoo Hoo!' cried Heimlich to the bird, drawing its attention away from Dot and Francis. 'Mr. Early Bird! Haw about a nice, tasty worm on a stick?' Slim was straining with the weight – under his breath, he muttered 'I'm going to snap, I'm going to snap...'

The bird cawed, and started to make its way over to the pair of them.

'Come catch de juicy, succulent, tender...' The bird was now past the rock we were hiding behind.

'Let's go!' said Flik, and I took flight. I flew upwards, not straining with the weight of the numerous bugs I was carrying. As we approached, Flik pointed to them, and I drew closer.

'There they are!' he said, climbing down me into the net with Tuck and Roll. Dot cried 'Flik, help!'

'OK!' said Flik to Rosie. She lowered the net down with a creek. As soon as it reached ground level, Tuck and Roll dragged Francis into the net, while Dot ran into Flik's arms, saying 'Flik!' again.

'It's going to be OK, Dot,' he said, as they all got in the net.

As Rosie reeled the net up again, I watched what was happening with Slim and Heimlich.

Woo, woo, woo-woo!' he said, as the bird drew closer to him and Slim.

'Bye bye, birdie,' he waved, as Slim jumped in the crack, bringing in Heimlich – only he stuck fast.

'Help! I'm stuck!' he moaned, waving his chubby arms frantically. The bird drew closer, as he squirmed.

'Pull me down! Schnell, schnell, schnell!' he yelled, as the bird approached him.

He let out one, long, continuous yell as the bird reached him. It hesitated briefly, before opening its mouth and reaching down – only for Gypsy to appear out of nowhere, opening her wing wide. She floated in front of the bird, showing off her wing pattern. It followed her, looking confused.

'Dim!' cried Rosie from below. I had got distracted from watching, and forgot out part of the mission.

Regaining my sense, I flew past the bird, just as Heimlich managed to squeeze himself inside the gap. I kept my legs secure on Rosie, not willing to let all the bugs she was carrying go down.

Suddenly, Francis awoke down in the net.

'Wha... My leg!' He tumbled backwards, tossing Flik and Dot out of the net. Flik maintained a grip on Dot and grabbed Francis' antenna, while Tuck and Roll held onto Francis, while keeping their other arms entangled in the net.

I strained with the added pressure, almost losing my grip on Rosie. Francis was letting out one, long, continuous yell, and I flew upwards as we started to approach the island.

'Flik!' said Dot from below. He looked back and gasped. I heard the sound of talons opening wide, and a cry. The bird was after us.

'_Ah_!' cried Tuck and Roll. '_Up-a, up-a, up-a, up-a, up-a_!'

Looking forward again, I saw that there was a solid cliff wall right in front of us. I changed tactic and flew upwards, aiming for a small gap in the middle of some thorny plants. Tuck and Roll were still yelling, and Flik, Dot and Francis were screaming. But I was almost there.

The gap approached – and, all of a sudden, we were through! We all let down, and looked behind us.

The bird was clawing, trying to find a way in. It then put its feet right in the thorns of one vine. Crying out in pain, it quickly flew off. Its cries died away briskly.

We all sighed in both relief and victory. A second later, we heard a weird noise from below. We looked up wondering what it was.

'What is that?' said Rosie, looking up. Manny suddenly had his mysterious aura about him. He stood up.

'That, my friends, is the sound of applause!' Looking down, we saw the colony cheering for us. This was great!

As Gypsy flew in with Slim and Heimlich, Manny brought Francis down, and I came down with Rosie, Tuck & Roll – along with Flik and Dot, who clung to my face. They let go as we landed. Rosie got off me to my right, and Tuck and Roll rolled over to Francis, popping open in a victory.

At the front of the crowd, Thorny, Mr. Soil, Dr. Flora, Cornelius, the Queen and Atta clapped incredibly enthusiastically.

I smiled as Dot, Slim, Rosie and Heimlich waved. Manny and Gypsy bowed, while Tuck and Roll supported Francis as he waved too.

This showed our power. This wasn't a miracle, not by the least of chances. This was our power, the power of one.

For we are one – as a team of amazing insects. Together – we can do anything.

'Applause,' chuckled Francis, 'I'm in heaven!' We all felt great as the applause continued. This was the way to be...

* * *

**Approximate Movie Running Time: 34:29-43:26**


	5. You Can't Stop Change

CHAPTER V: YOU CAN'T STOP CHANGE

Francis rested on the sick bed, his crushed leg in a prop stick. We were in the infirmary of the anthill, receiving thanks for rescuing Dot. Heimlich, Slim, Rosie and I were on Francis' left (in that order) and Tuck, Roll, Gypsy and Manny were on Francis' right (also in that order).

Across from us stood a group of young female ant scouts, known as the Blueberries. They were all wearing bandannas, and Dot was among them. On their close left was Dr. Flora and Flik, and Atta was right next to them. While Heimlich snacked on a snack from a big plant next to him, the lead Blueberry Scout was speaking.

'Our Blueberry troupe salutes you bugs for rescuing out smallest member, Princess Dot,' she said. As Atta let her arms droop by her side, she continued. 'And as a tribute to Miss Francis –' all the other scouts turned around, showing off their bandannas '– we changed our bandannas.'

Indeed, there were polka dots there that exactly matched those of Francis' back. Dot whipped around again.

'We voted you out honorary Den Mother!' she exclaimed. Then, all the Blueberries, cheering like kindergartens, rushed over to Francis.

'What?' he said, as the Blueberries crowded around his sick bed. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was less then warm to the whole idea. 'Great...' he remarked quietly, while Flik stepped closer, being right next to Francis now.

'_Aww_,' teased Tuck and Roll. '_Uw mushka..._'

'All right girls, interrupted Dr. Flora, 'let's more your little keisters outta here now.' She ushered the Blueberries out, who were still a bit chaotic. 'The patient needs her rest, you know! Uh huh, uh huh...' She followed them out through the leaf door.

Atta, who had been hovering (not literally) in the same spot, then stepped forward, and spoke up.

'Uh, excuse me, Flik?' she began, raising her exoskeleton-coated bony arm. 'Can I talk to you, just for a second?'

'Huh?' said Flik, who had been fingering around Francis' leg. 'Oh sure!' He moved forward, accidentally knocking aside Francis' leg prop. His leg fell down with a THUNK.

'Ow!' he whined.

'Again, uh...' said Atta, as she and Flik approached the leaf door, and Flik held it open for them to pass through, 'thank you all very, very much!' We all remarked simultaneously at this.

'Oh, stop it!' commented Rosie.

'Any time, pip,' I added. That was the first time I had ever spoken to any of the ants. It felt really odd.

Flik and Atta went out of the room, and we were left alone. Gypsy and Manny did something with each other, and Tuck and Roll broke into hysterics again. Francis, Slim and Heimlich chatted about something relevant, and I was left to my thoughts.

It was weird – I felt as though I was nearing a new stage in my life, but I was totally clueless as to what it could be. I guess the only option was to wait, as I'm sure a reasonable solution would present itself. And then...

'Dim?' said a voice right next to me. It was Rosie. I turned to face her, curiosity etched all over the lines of my face.

'Yeah?' I whispered, so quietly that none of the others could hear. It didn't matter though. None of them were paying us any attention anyway.

'You really want to help Flik,' she said, smiling at me. I froze at this, somewhat afraid of what she could guess correctly.

'Don't you?'

I nodded slowly. Rosie took over again.

'Why?'

'Well...' I began, wondering how I was to go about putting it into words. Eventually, I reached a conclusion.

'In him, I see...'

'Yourself?' interrupted Rosie.

'Well...' I stammered. 'Yeah.'

'And you feel it's your duty to help him?' she asked again, her face full of suspicion and confirmation, along with a bit of Cora, and that fiery, sexy element of Rosie I adored.

'Yeah,' I said, staring right into her eyes. I just prayed this conversation didn't turn to my past.

'Because he's you – sorta?' said Rosie.

I nodded. This felt really weird, almost like Cora was back again.

Rosie slowly leaned into me, closing her eyes as she did so. I closed my eyes too. Out lips had almost met when –

'Hopper's afraid of birds!' said Flik, rushing back into the room through the leaf door. Rosie and I instantly moved apart again, hoping none of the others had noticed.

'And I don't blame him!' said Francis, as we looked up from Francis to Flik.

'Oh, oh this is perfect!' said Flik hurriedly, pacing back and forth in front of Francis through Manny (for we were still in the same order). 'We can get rid of Hopper, and no one had to know that I messed up.

'You just keep pretending you're warriors!' he said to us worriedly.

'Whoa, Flik honey' responded Rosie, resting of her hands on her chest, and gesturing with the other. 'We are NOT about to fight grasshoppers – OK?'

'You'll be gone before the grasshoppers ever arrive,' continued Flik without interruption, gesturing almost randomly. 'It'll be easy! Here's what we do –'

'Ah, ah!' interjected Manny, stepping forwards from Gypsy, 'not another word! I don't know what you're concocting in that little ant brain of yours –' he poked the top of Flik's head, making a sound of someone rapping a football against a wall '– but we'll have no part of it!' He had only just visually dismissed Flik, who was about to speak up again, when –

'Excuse me?' said a voice. We looked around. Two kid ants, the same two kid ants who had met Francis, Slim and Heimlich when we had first arrived, were poking their heads around the leaf door.

'Could we get the warriors' autographs?' said the shorter, light-purple one.

'Autographs?' responded Heimlich. He dropped the raspberry he had been holding, and plucked an ink quill from the plant next to him. 'Yah!'

'Oh, wow!' remarked the two male ant kids, coming in past the leaf doors. They both carried small leafs, undoubtedly for us to sign on.

'So,' said Francis, taking the blue-freckled kid's leaf, and signing his name on it, 'you fellas catch the action today?'

'Oh,' said the blue-freckled kid, 'the bird went "meeewww" –' he mocked the bird's action '– and it just missed you!'

'Oh, aren't you sweet,' smiled Gypsy, taking the leaf from Francis to sign her own name.

'And the way you pretended to be stuck in that huge crack!' said the shorter kid to Heimlich, just as he signed his name on the other leaf and passed it and a plant quill to Rosie.

'Wel,' smiled Heimlich to the kid, as Rosie signed her name and then handed out the leaf, while I watched, smiling, 'dat was all part of ze plan!'

'Yeah, yeah,' remarked the kid enthusiastically, taking his leaf and quill from Rosie, and running around in a circle. 'And then you dive-bombed into the bush! Meeeewww!' Once he wasn't looking, Heimlich shrugged at Rosie with a very confused expression. We all knew why, of course.

The kid went next to his buddy, who was just receiving his signed leaf back from Manny.

'There you go, my boy,' said Manny.

'Thanks,' said the blue-freckled kid ant. His buddy then tried to read something on the leaf.

'Ma... Maj... Majur...' he struggled.

'That's Major Manny, young cadet!' said Manny, adopting a military pose. He leaned in to whisper the next part. 'I outrank everyone here; remember that.'

'Yes sir!' said both of the kids, raising an arm each in a salute.

'Dismissed!' responded Manny, saluting them out of the room. They went out of the room, chatting to each other.

'Wow,' said one of them, 'when I grow up, I want to be a praying mantis!'

'I want to be a stick bug!' said his buddy.

'Oh, they're all so cool,' said the other, as their voices faded away, 'I can't pick!' We all smirked at ourselves, feeling very smug that we had fans again – and we had signed autographs for them! To me, those particular kids were much like... two energetic kids of my own... when they were still alive.

'Woo, hoo hoo,' commented Manny, 'delightful lads!' He then reverted his attention to Flik, who had watched the whole scene with a smug expression. 'Uh,' he stalled, 'you were saying, Flik?'

'Alright,' began Flik, clearly ready, 'we are going to build a bird – a bird that can be operated from the inside! Which would then be –'

* * *

'– Which would then be highly hoisted,' said Manny, 'above the anthill, and hidden high in the tree.'

We were explaining Flik's idea – except we were presenting it as our own – to the ant council (which, as I suspected, consisted of Atta and Mr. Soil, Thorny, Dr. Flora and Cornelius). Manny was doing the talking, while Rosie hoisted a bird prop by a string of web, supported by Slim's arm, as he talked. Gypsy, Heimlich, Tuck & Roll and I watched. Francis wasn't present, as his leg was still a bit injured.

'Then,' continued Manny, 'right when Hopper and his gang are below, we launch the bird and scare off the grasshoppers!' He jumped forwards at these last few words, springing his wing shell, and making the council ants and Atta flinch (she too, albeit accidentally, flexed her wing muscles).

'Now,' continued Manny, 'it's going to take –'

* * *

'– Now it's going to take everyone's involvement to make this plan a reality,' said Atta, using Flik's megaphone.

We were all standing on huge fluorescent mushrooms around the spiral tree root inside the anthill. Atta was explaining the plan to the whole colony, as the bird was going into immediate construction. The other circus bugs and I were all around Atta (except Francis, who wasn't here for the same reason as before). The whole colony was on other fluorescent mushrooms, on tree branches, anywhere they could be.

'I know it's not our tradition to do things differently,' Atta assured the colony, waving her free hand, 'but if out ancestors were able to build this anthill, we can certainly rally together, to build this bird!'

The colony, along with us, all cheered and clapped at soon as Atta's speech was finished. One could definitely feel the determination and passion radiating from the 475 or so insects that were present.

As I stopped cheering, I glanced at Rosie. She noticed me looking at her and she nodded back. We both understood each other. Soon...

* * *

It was a bright, sunny day in the colony. The construction of the bird was beginning. Numerous ants were ready with sticks of the layout, but first...

Next to Atta, who waited with Flik's megaphone, Thorny used a thorn to cut a hole in a green leaf. The hole was the shape of a bird.

Manny and Gypsy instantly flew it up to the sun, and held it still. The shadow was only partly obstructed due to the hole, so a bird-shaped light effect was cast on the ground.

'Perfect!' yelled Thorny through a huge blow-horn next to him.

'OK!' yelled Atta through her megaphone. 'Make your mark!'

All the ants carrying small sticks instantly rushed forward, and they laid them down in the path that the light and shadow effect was casting on the ground. Manny and Gypsy then flew down, bringing the leaf down with them.

I now walked forward to the construction, hoisting a really big stick on my back. The two male ant kids who had got autographs were on the stick. As I approached, they got off, chuckling. I opened my shell like a catapult, flinging the stick into the to-be bird frame.

Over on the big tree, several ants pushed an acorn off a tree branch. It hit a pointy rock below, and split into three: the circular top, and two halves of the main body.

Several ants, including Flik, along with Tuck and Roll, rushed over to support one of them up. It was to be used as the bird's "beak."

As they hoisted it up, Flik noticed Atta helping on the other side. She chuckled nervously when she saw him. Something must have happened when she had chatted with him earlier, I thought, as I watched.

'Hi, Flik...' she said, catching his attention. He looked over at her, and also looked surprised.

'Oh...' he said, before Tuck, still on top of Roll, moved over to Flik, raising his eyebrows.

'_Oh, ho-ho-ho-ho-!_' he chuckled, before Flik shoved him aside with his hip. Chuckling nervously, they started to move the bird beak over to its place.

* * *

Later that day, as the sun was setting, I lowered a blow horn into the bird's frame, which had almost been completed. I was hoisting it by some web that Rosie had spun up. Thorny was on it, as he gave me directions to lower it in, while I buzzed above. Numerous ants were about at the same time, most doing little at the moment.

'OK,' said Thorny, waving his hand as I slowly lowered the blow horn in, 'lower, lower...' As it got lower, I chuckled my characteristic chuckle. Seconds later, the blow horn settled in.

'And that's it!' yelled Thorny – only his voice echoed through the blow horn, knocking over Cornelius, who had been standing nearby. His stick, which had been left behind, wobbled and then fell over.

A long time later, or maybe no time at all, a reasonable crowd of ants were pulling on the bird's outer frame, lowering the thick twigs into position so they could be secured together.

'_Up-hup!_' chanted Tuck and Roll, who were at the front of one of the lines. '_Up-hup, up-hup, up-hup-up-hup, uh-hup!_' They all pulled them to close point.

'Rabbit-through-the-hole, chicken-in-the-barn, two-barn, there's-the-yarn,' said Rosie really quickly, as she scuttled over the twigs that were being held close together by the ants. She was spinning web strands to hold them together, while we waited.

'Done!' she said in triumph, as she finished, now on the ground in front of the bird.

'_Ruben Kincaid_!' said Tuck and Roll, also in triumph. All the ants jumped off onto the ground.

'Hey!' cheered the crowd of ants as they landed on the ground.

'Good job, guys,' said Rosie, clapping as she spirited them on, 'nice work!'

By the next morning, the frame of the wings had been done also. Heimlich was directing several ants on how to control the wings of the bird, including Flik. At least they had arms with which to do it. But after the rock-trap, Heimlich had first-hand experience on how to do this.

'Up, down!' he spat through mouthfuls of food that he was wolfing down, 'up, down, up, down!'

* * *

I buzzed my way up into the tree for the next part of construction – the realism of the bird. I went into the hole that contained numerous leaves. And then, like a fan, my huge hard wings buzzed them all out into the air, where they all slowly fell to the ground.

But we'd need more than that. Higher up in the tree, volunteer ants were jumping on leaves to free them, and then they sailed them to the ground.

Going down on one, Flik yelled in excitement as he rode the leaf around in a wind.

'Whoo! Yee-haw!' he shouted and then –

'Flik, watch out!' said a voice from above. Flik dodged out of the way, and Heimlich came down, flapping several leafs to try and fly.

'Luk,' he puffed, 'I'm a beautiful butterfly!' Flik laughed as Heimlich came closer to the ground.

We now had numerous leafs for the bird, and the last few were just being put in place. Ants were laying those to-be-used leafs in a spare pile next to the bird.

As I watched from a distance, Flik was helping to pull a leaf in place, but both he and I got distracted by a voice.

'Here you go, good job fellas. Keep up the good work!' It was Atta, commandeering the last few phases of building. Flik gazed at her as if he was in a dream, with half-closer eyelids.

Atta looked up, and noticed the little blue ant. Quick as a flash, Flik regained himself, and dragged a huge leaf right in front of him, clearly hoping he hadn't been noticed.

Atta looked down at the red leaf she was carrying again, but I saw her smile to herself briefly afterwards again. If this was Flik's plan, it was working well. At least for him...

I turned around – and I bumped straight into Rosie. She dropped the leafs she had been carrying in surprise.

'Sorry, Rosie,' I stammered in suspense.

'Its fine, honey,' she stammered back, laying a hand on me.

'Listen,' she whispered, leaning in, 'could I have a word?'

I was a little curious, but nonetheless, I followed her into the grass stalks, until we reached the same place where we had argued against Flik for bringing us here. There was no one else to hear us, as everyone was busy working on the bird. Rosie turned to face me, and I turned to face her also.

'I've been trying to talk to you privately ever since we got here,' began Rosie, surpassing a chuckle not unlike my own. 'But this island is so crowded!'

I chuckled too in agreement, but I let it die down almost immediately.

'Dim,' sighed Rosie, 'I'm not gonna beat around the bush.' She took a deep breath, and continued.

'You've been thinking about... them,' she said, 'ever since we got here. Haven't you?'

I froze, almost in horror. I had known this would come sooner or later, but I hadn't expected it now, not when everyone was so happy. I gave her a slow, metallic nod.

'And,' said Rosie, 'what have you thought?'

'Don't!' I yelled out suddenly, causing some nearby grass stalks to stir. Rosie stepped back a pace, almost frightened.

'Don't go there...' I said, not looking at her. The pain was just too much. 'Not again...'

'Dim,' said Rosie, re-approaching me. She used a hand to turn me face to look at her again, but that only made it all the more painful.

'Dim,' she said, in her motherly voice, that I'm sure she had had to use numerous times, and not just with me, 'it's me. ROSIE. You can tell me ANYTHING. It'll be our little secret...' she chuckled.

I knew I'd have to talk about it. Best get this over with, I thought. I took a breath, and –

'I... I didn't want things to change,' I mumbled. 'Why did they have to change?' I cursed at myself, again not looking at Rosie. 'Why?...'

I felt Rosie feel my cheek with her soft, foam-like hand. She turned my face again to face her, leaned forward and –

Her lips met mine, and I embraced it, as we moved them around each other. Strangely, even though I was much bigger, it didn't hinder the practice. I kept doing it with her, not really knowing why, or for how long...

Eventually, we broke apart. Rosie's aura of magnetism was too much. This was almost an insult to Cora' memory...

'But you can't stop change,' said Rosie, still looking at me, 'any more then you can stop a moon getting brighter...'

This was a strange comment to make, I thought. But before I could think about it any further –

She pulled out two small, spherical objects. They glowed silver. She passed one of them to me. Clasping it between my front two feet, I saw that it was a pebble wrapped in spider web.

At exactly the same moment, I both remembered and understood. I looked up at her one.

She held it out in front of her, and I did the same. We both juggled them against each other, and then we chuckled.

'Come on,' said Rosie, leading me back to the main clearing, 'the bird's almost done.'

'Hey Rosie,' I said as we walked, just before we emerged from the grass stalks. She turned to face me, her face full of curiosity.

'Thanks,' I said, pecking my lips briefly on her cheek. She smiled at me.

* * *

It was the final part of construction. The bird was completely done. We just had to put it in the tree.

On the bird, Cornelius checked that the rope on top of it was secure. He waved his cane at Atta, who was buzzing in the air. She gave him a signal, and then looked up and me and Thorny, who were in the spacious hole at the top of the tree. Thorny gave her a hand signal also. She returned in and then buzzed down to land on the tree root around which the rope linked from the bird, for it went around a branch and back down.

'OK!' she yelled to the colony, waving their hands.

As one, they cooperatively began tugging on the ropes, using perfect hand-coordination.

Slowly, the bird began to rise off the ground. The sticks that had been supporting it also fell down. As it was raised higher, Gypsy, Manny, Slim, Heimlich and Rosie, put particular effort into the tugging. They had seen the rock-trap in action, but they hadn't help construct it.

Atta flew down and helped Flik where he was. I had a feeling that they smiled at each other.

The bird was being raised higher still. Within seconds, it was at our level. The colony stopped tugging it, but held it tight.

Thorny gave me a signal with a mushroom he was carrying, and I flew out, past the bird. Hovering in front of it, I balanced my horn on its beak and slowly started to push it in.

Thorny waved the mushrooms at me as I pushed in it slowly. Any second now...

He crossed them against each other, and I stopped, but I stayed put. Several ants used small sticks with pebbled ledged in them to wedge a big prop stick in place against the bird's neck. Up ahead, ants sealed two smaller prop sticks against a rock, which was to be used, later, for dislodging the bird. It was done!

'_You're fired_!' chanted Tuck and Roll, leaning out of the bird's beak, as I buzzed down and landed again. They laughed as Thorny waved his mushrooms to the crowd below, who had moved forward from the ropes. All the council ants, along with the Queen and Atta, as well as the other circus bugs, cheered pretty enthusiastically at the front of the crowd.

It was ready. All we needed to do now was wait for the grasshoppers...

* * *

**Approximate Chapter Running Time: 43:27-47:45; 48:13-48:42; 48:52-50:40**


	6. The Pain Of Rejection

CHAPTER VI: THE PAIN OF REJECTION

It was almost night time in the colony clearing of Ant Island, and the only light came from numerous fluorescent mushrooms brought outside for the night. Apart from those ants that were keeping a lookout for the grasshoppers, from all the lookout points around the edge of the island, the rest of the colony was throwing a party.

Numerous leafs were set up as barriers around the place, and ants were doing all sorts of activities.

'To the Bird!' cried one ant, slapping a water bead against another one held by a fellow ant.

'The bird!' chanted the rest of the colony. A long line of ants extended out of the anthill. They danced forwards, pausing to say "hey" every two seconds. Manny and Gypsy were also in the line, and they too danced as the line moved.

In the crowd of dancing ants, Dr. Flora was doing a roll-dance move with Tuck on top of Roll.

'Get down, roley boys,' she said as she rubbed her hips against them. They chuckled as they rebounded, almost falling off, but they kept their balance.

'How low can you go?' chanted Slim, who was being held as a limbo stick by two ants.

'How low can you go?' chanted the crowds as Atta approached to do the limbo.

'Do it Princess – how low can you go?' they said as she went under. Coming out, she laughed it off. It was almost as though she'd never laughed before.

Elsewhere, Rosie was telling one male any a tale she'd told us quite a few times.

'...And that's how my twelfth husband died,' said Rosie to the male ant. 'So now I'm a widow. I mean – I've always been a black widow. But now I'm a black widow... widow.' She then laughed, alone with the male ant, who chuckled silently.

Meanwhile, there was a small line of kid ants queuing to get on top of me. Chuckling, I opened my shell, flinging the light blue kid ant through the air. She hit the small spider net that Rosie had spun up between two insect-height grass stalks. One of the kids that was already there was just crawling off the net, as it was quite sticky.

When all the kids were gone, I came up to Francis, as all the other circus bugs did at exactly the same time.

'Blueberries dismissed!' saluted Francis to the Blueberry troupe, which included Dot again. They ran off chanting as we all crowded around Francis. 'And uh,' called Francis after them, 'quit beating the boys up.

'Those little raisins do grow on ya,' thought Francis in an almost dreaming state. Guess they had finally gotten through his tough male exterior to the girl within – If you know what I mean.

'Hey, how are you guys doing?' asked Flik, coming up to us. He was speaking a bit more loudly then was necessary. 'Some party, huh? Is that grain dip fresh or what?

'Okay,' he whispered, leaning in to us. We leaned closer so that no one else could hear. 'I've told everyone you'll be stationed deep in the command bunker. Party quiets down, I sneak you out the back way, and then you're outta here forever.' We felt a bit hurt at these words. Of course, we didn't want to fight the grasshoppers, but...

'Dim don't wanna go,' I said. That was only the third time I had ever spoken to anyone other than Rosie since... I was destroyed. Flik stared at me in a very thoughtful way, as well as the others. Luckily, attention was quickly re-diverted from me.

'Well,' stalled Rosie, 'if Dim stays, he's gonna need me here, he's not fully trained.' This sentence brought stares that suggested insanity in us.

'I mean house trained!' finished Rosie. I chuckled my characteristic chuckle at these words before Francis interrupted.

'Uh,' he mumbled, 'I kinda promised the Blueberries I'd teach 'em... canasta. Gypsy then put an arm briefly around Flik.

'It seems we've been booked for an extended engagement,' she said. Just then, Tuck and Roll came up to Flik, the former on top of the latter. Tuck grabbed Flik's cheeks with his hands and, making kissing sounds, kissed Flik briefly on both lips. They then stood back, chuckling in their gibberish Hungarian. Flik stared at them, almost as if he was mesmerized in a dream, until we were again interrupted.

'Would you look at this colony,' said Atta, coming up beside Flik, while Manny held hands with Gypsy, and then rest of us smiled, each in our own individual way. 'Would you just look at this colony? I-I do-I don't even recognize it!'

We watched, a good distance away, Cornelius doing one handed press ups in the middle of a small crowd. The Queen was nearby, watching him enthusiastically. Cornelius chuckled as he did the one-handed press ups.

'I feel seventy again!' he laughed over the noise.

'Work the hem, baby,' chuckled the Queen as she held Aphie. Both she and Aphie laughed, almost in a weird way.

We looked back at each other.

'And I have you bugs to thank for it,' said Atta to us, 'so, thank you!

'And, uh,' said Atta to Flik slowly, 'thank you for finding 'em, Flik.' She rested a hand on his shoulder, catching his attention.

'Me?' said Flik turning to Atta. One of his antenna accidentally got tangled up with one of Atta's.

'Whoops!'

'I-I'll get it,' stammered Flik, reaching up to them, 'I mean, if you don't mind, I'll just –'

'It's all tangled up,' laughed Atta unnecessarily as Flik successfully untangled the antenna, and they snapped back to their normal position. They both chucked, determinately looking anywhere but each other.

'Think I'll go check on the bird...' said Atta, wandering off past us in the other direction. Flik stared after her in a dreamy state, until –

'Bird's this way,' said Atta going off the other way, past Flik again.

'Yeah, the bird's that way!' said Flik, once Atta was gone. We smiled knowing smiles, and Tuck and Roll did that thing with their eyebrows again (flexing them up and down). 'She didn't even – what?'

Flik and Atta were so sweet, I thought. As long as she didn't find out we were circus bugs, everything would be fine. We just had to let nature take its course, and then...

All of a sudden, there was the sound of a blow horn. The alarm was going off! It was time!

We all looked up in worry. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Atta change course from where she had been walking. As squadrons of ants readied themselves exactly as they had in the drill, Atta buzzed over them, giving commands.

'Battle stations everyone, this is not a drill!' she yelled as the crowd of ants began running up the tree to the bird. As long as they got there in time... Flik detached himself from us and ran off into the crowd, probably to hide from Hopper.

'Come on everyone, you know your jobs,' yelled Atta, as the ants started to get to the steep part of the tree. 'Let's go, go-go, go!'

Suddenly, bright yellow lights began approaching Atta from behind. Looking behind, she jumped out of the way, just as a two-part wagon, being pulled by two centipedes, leaped into the clearing.

'Look out!' cried a few ants, running out of the way as it landed in the clearing, still going around. It slowly slowed down as the crowd stopped running. There was a wolf spider on top, playing a fanfare on a selection of bottle caps, along with two fireflies, which were shining the lights. They seemed oddly familiar...

The wagon was being controlled by a brown flea on top, who had a pair of reins attached to the centipedes.

'Whoa, whoa girls,' he said, pulling on the reins, as the wolf spider struck up a fanfare on his makeshift instruments. 'Steady girls, that's it!' I realised who that was!

'It's P.T.' squirmed Heimlich.

'P.T.' I moaned, as we scuttled away through the leaves, just as P.T. sprung to the front of the stopped wagon, as the ants that had scattered when he'd arrived approached the wagon curiously. Gypsy and Manny grabbed a huge, rusty leaf, and we squatted under it. We started to make our way around the perimeter of the colony clearing.

'Greeting and salutations!' came P.T.'s voice, as we edged our way further. 'Hoo-rumba-doo and how-do-you-do? I am the great P.T. Flea!' We heard him chuckle briefly.

'I'm in need of your assis...' His voice trailed off briefly here, and his tone reverted to his usual voice.

'Oh, let's just cut to the chase. Look, I've been going from anthill to anthill. I'm looking for a bunch of circus performers –' there was a brief pause in his voice, in which, we heard brief wing buzzing, and the sound of a paper roll being unrolled, as well as Ymri's fanfare dying away '– have you seen them?'

The colony gasped, I could tell, even though I couldn't see them. We scuttled further, eager to hide so P.T. didn't see us.

'Wait a second,' said a voice from around the direction of the wagon that I recognized as Cornelius, 'ain't that Staff Sergeant Slim?'

'No! No, no, I'm sorry, but I-I'm pretty sure we haven't seen anyone like that around here,' said Flik's voice. Clearly, he was trying to send away P.T. in a hurry. I prayed that it would work.

We bumped into something, and then regained our sense of walking.

'Be quiet!' hissed Slim. By the look of the ground, I could tell that we were almost at the grass stalks where we could hide...

'You'll-you'll probably want to get going, I guess you've got a lot of other anthills to check into, so bye,' continued Flik's voice.

A bright light suddenly shined on us, and I could tell it was the fireflies. But before I could let the others know, the leaf was pulled off us. It was P.T., and he looked really excited to see us.

'Ah guys, I've being looking all over for you,' he began really fast, despite Francis, Slim and Rosie telling him repeatedly to be quiet. 'Flaming Death is a huge hit!'

'P.T., Shh!' hissed Francis, to no avail.

'I'm serious! Word of mouth got around – the next day, there was a huge line of flies outside the tent, going on forever. It must have been a foot long!' We then noticed Atta, the council ants, and numerous other ants approaching also. This was bad.

'Shh, P.T.' hissed Rosie, also to no avail, as the ants drew closer to the light that enveloped us, now within hearing range.

'So, I figured it out,' yelled P.T. hopping every so often in excitement, 'you guys burn me twice a night, I take a day off to heal, and then we do it all over again! We'll be the top circus act in the business!' He laughed it off, at the ants watching us looked very shocked.

'You mean,' said Atta slowly, clearly hoping that P.T. was wrong, 'you're not warriors?'

'Are you kidding?' said P.T. in disbelief, turning to the ants. 'These guys are the lousiest circus bugs you've ever seen!' The colony gasped in shock.

'And they're gonna make me rich!' chuckled P.T. clasping Tuck and Roll on either side of him, who grinned nervously. He laughed in delight, but all wasn't ruined yet. As long as they still thought the bird was our idea...

'You mean to tell me,' shouted Thorny over P.T., 'that our entire defensive strategy was CONCUTED by CLOWNS?'

'Hey-hey-hey,' stammered Francis, trying to fix the situation, 'we really thought Flik's idea was gonna work!'

The colony gasped again at these words, and turned their attention to Flik at the back of the crowd, who had been hiding by the circus wagon. One of the fireflies shined a light on him, making his unnerved state even more obvious. As though on cue, a cricket chirped out in the background.

'Oops...' stuttered Francis, letting his antenna fall. Before we could say anything – not that I would have – Atta had broken through the crowd to Flik.

'Tell me this isn't true,' she said to him definitely.

'No, no, you don't, you don't,' he stammered, but it was pointless. His expression was a good as a confession.

'This couldn't have happened at a more inopportune time,' fretted Mr. Soil over Flik and Atta, 'the last leaf is about to fall!'

'We haven't collected any food for the grasshoppers,' squealed Dr. Flora, as Flik looked down, than up again.

'If Hopper finds out what we almost did –' worried Thorny.

'Hopper is not going to find out!' said a voice in the crowd. The crowd parted, leaving a small line of ground between us and the council ants, as well as Flik and Atta. It was the Queen, who clutched an aggravated-looking Aphie. 'We're going to hide all this, and pretend it never happened.

'You bugs were never here,' she said to us, pointing a shaking finger at us, 'so I suggest you all leave –'

'Bu-But the bird,' interjected Flik in a worried voice, running in front of us, 'the bird will work!'

'I NEVER thought I'd see the day,' said the Queen to Flik in an ashamed voice, 'when an ant would put himself before the rest of his colony.'

'What?' said Flik, looking very shocked. I could tell bad things were coming for him, and sure enough...

'The point is Flik,' said the Queen, partially looking as though she regretted what she was doing, 'you lied to us.'

'No, no-no,' stammered Flik in fruitless desperation, while we watched with sad expressions, 'I-I –'

'You lied, Flik!' said Atta, walking towards him again, anger written all over her body, even in her wings. 'You lied to her, you lied to the colony, you lied to me!' She clutched her hands close to her chest at these last words.

'And like an... Idiot, I believed you,' she said, looking on the verge of both crying and attacking Flik. But I'm sure she knew better than that.

'But I-, stammered Flik again. Somehow, this was even worse than when Cora had discovered I'd betrayed the colony, even though it had nothing to do with me. 'I was just afraid that, if you knew I'd gotten circus bugs...' He noticed that Atta was shaking with anger. He sighed and looked down in rejection.

'I just wanted to make a... difference...' he finally said.

'I want you to leave Flik,' said Atta from above him, still shaking with anger that we could understand, even if we didn't like it. 'And this time... don't come back.'

Flik looked up at these words, his eyes glowing with tears. He then looked down again, as the crowd of ants murmured among themselves. I saw Dot let out a small gasp from where she was with several other Blueberries. I also noticed Aphie squirm from where the Queen was still holding him. I could almost feel the emotional pain radiating from Atta, and especially from Flik. I knew what he was feeling. I knew what it was like to be rejected when you were just trying to help...

Flik sighed silently, and then he turned and walked away. We did the same, and followed suit, all of us letting our arms droop by our side.

'Tough crowd...' murmured P.T. from on top of the wagon. He then whipped his centipedes, and they pulled the wagon alongside us, with P.T., Ymri, and Blip and Flash on top. As we walked alongside the wagon as it passed under the tree root, we all felt too depressed to even speak. The only good news was that this depression, while of rejection, had nothing to do with my past, and wasn't as painful for me. But the fact that we all felt depressed was worse than that.

Only a bit later, as we were making our way across the uncracked part of the riverbed, just after the giant boulders, with I walking beside the wagon, with Tuck and Roll on top of me, and the others in the open back compartment, and Blip and Flash lighting the way with their luminous abdomens, I happened to glance up at Ant Island.

With a pang, I saw the only leaf left on the twig-less tree flutter in the breeze, and then fall off, and float down. The grasshoppers would arrive at Ant Island soon, but there was nothing we could do to stop them.

* * *

It was daytime, and P.T. was leading the circus wagon through a path in a forest of grass stalks that would take us back to the city. I walked beside, with Tuck and Roll on me, and the others in the open back, except for Flik, who was sitting on the back flap of the wagon, just staring at the ground. The only sound to be heard was P.T. singing to himself as we made our way back to the city.

'Oh, I'm gonna be rich, rich, rich; you're gonna be rich, rich, rich, you're gonna be the richest flea in the land – kching! The streets, will be paved, with golden retrievers. I'm rich, rich, rich, that's who I am! I'm gonna be rich, rich, rich; you're gonna be rich, rich, rich...'

I noticed the other circus bugs, in the back of the wagon, stare at Flik at he looked down, not making a sound. I said nothing. I knew the best way to let someone who was like this recover was to give them time, at least a little...

'Poor fellow,' said Slim, resting his top hands together.

'Hey,' said Francis to Slim and Heimlich, 'maybe we can cheer him up a bit.'

The three of them approached Flik as he sat there.

'Don't worry, Flik,' began Heimlich sweetly in his German accent. 'De circus life isn't so bad...'

'Yes,' said Slim enthusiastically, catching Flik attention, you can be part of our act!'

'Here, like this!' said Francis, buzzing above the ground, and beating Slim senseless with one of his wings. Slim looped around, and then fell in Francis' grasp.

'Slapstick!' he said, while the other two struck poses of waiting for applause. He chuckled as Flik looked away. 'Get it? I-I'm a walking stick, heh heh... He then relented. 'Oh never mind...'

Flik had just looked down again, when a voice from far off said his name, and I recognized it.

'Dot?' he said looking up, his antenna twitching. Sure enough, buzzing past me, Dot came into view, huffing and puffing, but she was actually flying!

'Flik, wait, wait!' she cried, as she came closer.

'Dot?' said Flik again, scrambling to his feet, while the other circus bugs watched curiously. 'You're flying!' he exclaimed as he caught her.

'What are you doing here?' he asked, as he but her down inside the wagon, and she breathed air back into her lungs.

'You...' she said, still gasping for air, 'have to come back.' She then spoke to all of us at large.

'Hopper moved into the anthill, and his gang's eating everything!' Flik stood up, as all the others exclaimed in surprise as well.

'Good heavens,' remarked Manny.

'And I heard a grasshopper say,' continued Flik, 'that when they're finished, Hopper's gonna squish my mom!'

'Oh, oh not ze Queen!' fretted Heimlich as the circus bugs stepped closer, and Flik was hidden from view. Francis stroked his chin in thought, while the others continued to fret.

'We gotta do something!' said Rosie.

'How?' asked Francis, while Dot watched them with an open mouth.

'Come on, you guys, think!'

'I know,' said Gypsy thoughtfully, 'the bird!'

'Yes, of course!' said Manny.

'The bird, that's brilliant!' said Slim happily.

'Ya, ya –' said Heimlich.

'The bird won't work,' said a voice. As the circus bugs parted I saw, to my surprise, that it was Flik. He was sitting on the big pencil, next to the upturned wastepaper basket, and he looked a little agitated.

'What are you talking about?' questioned Francis in surprise. 'It was your idea –'

'But,' said Dot, pushing past Francis, 'you said that everything –'

'Forget EVERYTHING I ever told you,' said Flik, gesturing a bit viciously with his hands, 'all right, Dot?' Dot looked down before Flik spoke up again.

'Let's face it,' he mumbled, 'the colony is right, I just make things worse. That bird is a guaranteed failure...' He then sighed in defeat again. 'Just like me...' There was a brief pause.

'You listen to me, my boy,' said Manny, stepping forwards. 'I've made a living out of being a failure, and you, sir, are not a failure!' This caught Flik's attention enough to make him look up at us.

'Oh, but Flik, you've done so many good things,' said Rosie sweetly to the little ant.

'Oh, yeah?' he questioned her, a little sarcastically 'Okay, show me one thing I've done right.'

'Um...' said Rosie, while all the others thought hard. However, I had the answer.

'Us,' I simply said. All the others agreed on this, while Dot looked around curiously. Flik looked up at us again, the faintest glow of an impossible hope in his eyes.

'Dim is right, my boy,' said Manny. He and Gypsy slowly put their hands together and smiled, while Heimlich looked so sweet next to them. 'You have rekindled then long-dormant embers of purpose in our lives.'

'And if it wasn't for you,' said Slim, his arms creaking as he moved them, 'Francis would have never got in touch with his sensitive side.'

'Oh, yeah?' said Francis angrily, buzzing in the air next to Slim, and shaking a fist at him. 'Well...' But then Francis relaxed, and let out a small chuckle. 'You know what? He's right!' Gypsy then stepped forward to Flik.

'Lieutenant Gypsy reporting for duty,' she said, raising an arm in a military salute.

'Kid, say the word, and we'll follow you into battle!' sad Francis, looking very manly.

'We believe in you, my boy!' said Manny happily. It was then that Dot spoke up again.

'Flik?' she said slowly, putting out both of her hands in desperation. 'Please?'

Flik stared at us all, before he turned away. I could understand and sympathize why. What were we to do now...? He didn't seem likely to get up with us again.

Dot seemed to accept his decision. She then turned around and buzzed out past me, but I kept walking regardless. I watched the other look past me as the buzzing grew fainter.

But then it grew louder again, and she flew in past me, and landed back down between Francis and Manny. She was holding a small rock. She looked at it briefly before walking forwards and putting it on the pencil Flik was sitting on. Hearing the "thunk", he looked around at the rock curiously, still looking a bit depressed.

'Pretend it's a seed, OK?' she said in her sweet kiddie voice. I was totally befuddled by the little rock, as were the others, but Dot clearly understood.

Flik stared at the rock, until understanding and happiness trickled over his face, as sunlight seemed to shine in upon them. Letting out a small chuckle, he looked up at Dot again, now smiling.

'Thanks Dot,' he smiled.

Dot also smiled, and then opened her arms, and ran into Flik. He embraced her, and then hugged. They were as close as family, I could tell.

'Hey, what's with the rock?' whispered Francis to Slim.

'Must be an ant thing...' Slim whispered back. Francis nodded to his wooden buddy, while Heimlich looked confused.

Flik finally put Dot down, and then looked up at us.

'All right,' he said to us, 'let's do it!'

We all cheered at these words, looking very happy as his agreement.

'That's the Flik we know and love,' remarked Gypsy, while Tuck and Roll slapped hands together on top of me.

'We're on!' cheered Manny.

'So,' said Rosie, drawing closer to Flik, her hands balled into fists, 'what do we do first?'

He smiled in a mischievous way, as though he knew, and it was bad...

* * *

I walked alongside the wagon, as P.T. kept singing to himself. Any second now...

'Bugs will pay big bucks to see,' he sang, 'a bonfire that is starring me!' He laughed just as Francis buzzed up in front up of him.

'P.T., look,' said Francis, pointing behind P.T., 'money!'

'Where, where?' the brown flea said, looking behind him. Rosie was there, ready to fire.

'What the?' he said, as she shot the web at him.

'Aaahhh!' he yelled, but the web easily muffled his cries, as Flik grinned behind Rosie.

* * *

**Approximate Movie Running Time: 54:15-59:50; 64:00-67:09**


	7. The Path To Victory

CHAPTER VII: THE PATH TO VICTORY

'All right,' yelled the grasshopper, pointing the marching ants forward, while carrying a small fluorescent mushroom, 'get moving!' The ants were, under orders, marching into the space next to the anthill, which was guarded by several grasshoppers.

'Get going!' he yelled, kicking an ant just below his thorax. 'Move your abdomens now!'

'They're rounding everyone up,' whispered Flik, who was watching the scene through a custom-made telescope of his. I was behind the others with Tuck and Roll, and the rest of the circus bugs were around Flik, hiding around some leaves.

Just as the others peeked up to have a closer look, a bright yellow light glowed to our right. Looking over, we saw that it was one of the fireflies.

'Hey,' hissed Francis, 'turn your butt off!' Flash hastened to obey. He, Blip and Ymri was around the back of the circus wagon, which was on a small stretch of free ground in the clover forest. P.T. was hung up by Rosie's web inside the back compartment of the wagon.

'Pss, hey, guys' he hissed to Ymri, Blip and Flash, 'get me outta this thing, will ya? I promise to start thinking about paying ya –' Blip and Flash started to shut the flap, while Ymri gave P.T. a brief wave '– wait, wait! OK, I'll pay ya, I'll pay y –' the flap was shut fully, muffling out his voice. I brought my attention back to Flik and the others.

'Oh no!' hissed Flik to us, looking through the telescope at the bench in the colony clearing, where several grasshoppers sat, along with the Queen and Atta. We also saw that the line of ants dropping food next to them had literally just finished.

'They've finished collecting the food,' whispered Flik to us. 'We've got to get the Queen now! Once she's safe, we move on Gypsy's signal. We all nodded, and ducked back down. Flik and Dot snuck off to get the Blueberries, while we all went to the wagon.

Slim, Francis and Heimlich went up on top of the wagon. Slim held the centipedes by their reins. Ymri was behind them, ready with his instruments. Blip and Flash positioned themselves next to him. Manny and Gypsy positioned themselves to take flight, from the back of the wagon.

Rosie attached the wagon to my back via a small rope, as Tuck and Roll squeezed themselves into it. We were ready. All we needed was Flik's signal...

'You ready?' said Rosie to me, looking concerned.

I turned to face her and, for the first time in my life, I didn't see Cora in Rosie. I just saw Rosie, almost as if Cora had never existed. I was starting to overcome my problem, I could tell.

'Not just ready,' I responded. Before Rosie could respond as well, I brought out my web-bound pebble again.

'I'm bright,' I said. Rosie smiled, and held out her one as well. We juggled them against each other, and then I gave them to Rosie for safekeeping. She then climbed on top of me, and we waited...

Flik must have given the signal to Slim, because he whipped the centipedes, and they instantly started to pull the wagon forward. Ymri started up a drum roll, as Blip and Flash shone their lights, and Gypsy and Manny flew alongside the wagon. I walked alongside the wagon, as Slim started speaking, just as we approached the looping tree root.

'Ladies and Gentlebugs!' he said, as we drew closer. 'Larvae of all stages! Rub your legs together for the world's greatest bug circus!'

Ymri struck up a much jazzier tune just as we went into the clearing, while Flash and Blip shone their lights to attract attention. Rosie and I smiled as we walked alongside the moving wagon. Francis, Slim and Heimlich waved to all the watching grasshoppers – most of which looked downright befuddled – as we started to approach the bench.

Between the Queen and Atta, who looked really shocked in a bad way, sat a really menacing grasshopper. The resemblance to Maula was uncanny, except for the minor physical differences, and the lack of a stinger or a colour scheme. I could only assume that he was Hopper. All the other grasshoppers looked ordinary, except for a pudgy one on Atta's other side, and a beast-like one on the Queen's right.

But just as we continued to act as though we were expected, Hopper stood up.

'Wait a minute!'

Something about him made us stop. The wagon stopped moving, Ymri musical interlude died away on a repeated last note, and Gypsy and Manny landed down. All out expressions changed for the worse slightly.

'Mesa think I'm going to wet myself,' mumbled Heimlich, as he waved unconvincingly. Francis leaned across to him and whispered 'Steady...' as he managed to keep on a smile, although it still showed traces of fear.

'What's going on here?' said Hopper slowly, leaning into a shocked Atta, making her draw back slightly.

'Well,' stammered Atta, 'uh –'

'Ah, yes,' interrupted Slim, drawing Hopper's attention away from Atta. He chuckled nervously briefly, while Francis kept his fear-ridden smile.

'We were invited by Princess Atta –' Francis nodded in agreement '– as a surprise for your arrival.' Atta watched Hopper, who didn't move a muscle. We all just waited, hoping he would take well to this, and that he wasn't as humour-repelling as Maula was.

'Squish 'em,' he said shortly. He had only just finished when Francis and Slim's expression changed to gasps of fear faster than you could flick a light switch. The six grasshoppers other grasshoppers on the bench instantly buzzed above their seats, looking pretty menacing.

'Ooh,' I stuttered, back-stepping in a hurry. I lost my grip, and sat backwards, straight on the cannon. Tuck and Roll instantly shot out, rebounded off the wagon, and flew straight through the air, landing right in front of Hopper.

'Hey!' they said, unrolling with a pop, as they danced around each, other, completely ignorant of the expressions of Hopper, the Queen, or Atta '_Ya brava-brava do daa-vitch, ee eska broad-da vaita vitch_!'

'_A-broa-dee-da-vooda-vitch-eska_' jumbled Roll, revolving around on the same spot.

'_Eee-eska-vitch-a-vossa!_' interjected Tuck, slapping Roll on the face.

They then started squabbling over what appeared to be nothing, now flapping their many limbs at each other. Hopper slowly raised a finger and pointed at them, as a smile crossed his face.

'Now that's funny,' he said. The grasshoppers lowered themselves back down into their seats, laughing and mocking Tuck and Roll's action, for they were now rolling around the ground, still fighting.

'I guess we could use a little entertainment,' said Hopper gently, sitting back down, and putting his legs up. 'Looks like you did something right for once, Princess.' Atta looked around nervously, clearly utterly confused.

Slim leapt down from the wagon and chuckled nervously.

'On with the show!' he said, raising his four arms. And in no time at all...

'Hi yah!' shouted Rosie, whipping the whip at me, as I rode around her in a circle, Tuck and Roll on top of me. They chanted some stuff, one standing on top of the other.

'The circus, the circus!' chanted the pudgy grasshopper, as I rode past him. 'I love the circus!'

As I rode past the bench, while Rosie whipped the whip at me again, I caught a glance of Hopper again. While he was not cheering along with the other grasshoppers, he did seem satisfied. Atta and the Queen, of course, were still totally nervous and befuddled.

When my act was over, it was Heimlich's turn next. He sucked on a fake baby bottle, lying on the ground with a nappy made of two big folded leafs around his abdomen.

'Bottle all gone,' he moaned, sitting up, and flinging away the bottle. 'Baby wants pie!'

'Pie?' asked Francis, buzzing next to Heimlich with a raspberry pie, while Heimlich hopped up and down in excitement. 'He asked for it! Should I give it to him?'

'Yeah,' cried the pudgy grasshopper, while several of his buddies egged Francis on. 'Give pie, give pie!'

Without waiting, Francis flung the pie at Heimlich. Several food bits scattered, some hitting the grasshoppers. They laughed as Heimlich licked the raspberry off both himself and Francis.

'Thank you gentlemen, always an intellectual treat,' said Slim, while he juggled several red berries.

'Say, how many roaches does it take to screw in a light bulb?' wondered Slim aloud, tossing the berries into the air. 'Can't tell – soon as the light goes on, they scatter!' he finished, as he caught the berries and posed.

Many grasshoppers fell over laughing at these words, including three positioned at the anthill. Waiting beside the wagon, for I was needed shortly, I noticed Atta roll her eyes, and then glance upwards. From her silent shock, I could tell she had noticed Flik and the Blueberries climbing up the tree. She squirmed slightly in her seat, and then half-chanced a glance at Hopper. Luckily, he was still watching us. And...

'From the most mysterious regions, of uncharted Asia,' chanted Manny (he was wearing his stage turban), as I pushed the huge Chinese takeaway box forward into place. I then stood back, and smiled. 'I give you, the Chinese Cabinet, of metamorphosis!

'Utilising psychic vibrations,' continued Manny, closing his eyes and resting his hands on them, as he walked forward to the bench, 'I shall select the perfect volunteer.

'Ooo, oo-oo,' mumbled the pudgy grasshopper as Manny passed, 'pick me! Come on –' he strained his arms and muscles in a similar position as Manny '– I'm asking you with my brain!'

Manny hummed as he reached around in the air, now right in front of Hopper.

'Aha!' he yelled, pointing at the Queen, reaching out with a hand. 'Why, your majesty...'

'Me –' said the Queen, taking Manny's hand. But then, the fearsome grasshopper next to the Queen let out a snarl at Manny, making him jump backwards.

'No, Thumper, down,' said Hopper casually to the fearsome grasshopper, making him sit back in his seat.

'Maybe he'll saw her in half,' said Hopper, chuckling, as Manny helped the Queen over the bench and towards me.

'As you ascend the dung beetle to the unknown,' said Manny dramatically, as the Queen hopped onto my horn. I buzzed up to the level of the Chinese takeaway box, and she climbed off me – only to be secured under my abdomen, as I rotated while lowering myself back down to ground level. This was all part of the plan, of course. I had done the move so quickly that none of the grasshoppers even suspected anything at all.

'Put your trust in the mysteries that are beyond mere mortal comprehension,' continued Manny, as I walked back to the circus wagon. We were almost done. Despite the similarities, I felt much safer about this plan compared to the rock-trap from much earlier. That had flaws. This one didn't.

'Oh, this is gonna be good,' said Hopper in a relaxed state, as I just went around the circus wagon, where all the others, except for Gypsy, were waiting.

'I call upon the ancient Szechwan spirits,' said Manny loudly, as I turned around. Rosie, Slim, Heimlich, Tuck and Roll motioned for me to stay quiet as I did so. 'To inhabit the body of our volunteer!' said Manny's voice again.

I felt the Queen peek out of my shell. I could understand her confusion.

'No-no,' whispered Francis behind me, 'just stay in there, your majesty.' I felt the Queen duck back in.

'Transformation,' said Manny from the other side, 'transformation, transformation!' As we huddled together for warmth while we waited, we looked up at the night sky. We saw cloud drift over the moon slowly – rain clouds. Something told me that wasn't good...

'Wow,' said Francis in a surprised tone. 'Manny's getting good.'

We waited, feeling the tension in the air. Just about 30 more seconds...

'And now,' said Manny's voice dramatically, 'Insectus, Transformitus!'

We heard the box vibrate, as Gypsy burst out of it. Un-noticed, we edged back around the wagon.

'Oohh,' chanted several of the grasshoppers, looking at Gypsy's wings, as she floated in the air. With a final note from Ymri, who had been adding his fanfare to the whole show, Gypsy spun around to face the bench, and slowly floated down. The grasshoppers stared at Gypsy with a mesmerised look. The pudgy one said 'Pretty...' in an almost mesmerised way.

As the grasshoppers clapped, Gypsy landed beside Manny, holding his hands. They bowed repeatedly, Gypsy flexing her wings behind her, for that was the signal to Flik, who was undoubtedly watching from above for it.

'Thank you, thank you,' said Gypsy, as Manny and her continued to bow. We knew the bird would strike in the next 15 seconds. But, without being noticed, Tuck, Roll, Slim and Francis started to push the Chinese takeaway box offstage, while Heimlich, Rosie and I moved behind.

'That was amazing!' said the pudgy grasshopper breathlessly, as they continued clapping. I, hav, no, wha – how did they do that? I have no idea where she went!'

'Thank you, thank you, thank you,' continued Gypsy, as we continued t push the Chinese takeaway box further away, while the grasshoppers started to shout 'More!' repeatedly.

'Wait!' shouted Hopper, leaning forward, with a glint of evil in his eyes. Gypsy let her wings drop at this, and the rest of us stopped dead in our tracks.

'Where is she?' questioned Hopper, standing up.

'Well,' stammered Manny, mumbling as he took a few steps backwards, 'I, um, um, actually –'

'I'm sorry,' cut in Gypsy, stepping in front of Manny, 'a magician never reveals his secrets!' Manny nodded in agreement behind her.

'That's very true, Hoppy,' lectured the pudgy grasshopper, completely ignorant of Hopper's glare. 'I mean, where would the mystery be if we all knew how it was –' Hopper flung a spare kernel at him, and he instantly stopped talking, squeezing himself up, while Atta moved her eyes back and forth without moving.

'Shutting up,' said the pudgy grasshopper quietly.

'I said where is she?' yelled Hopper at us, as he and the other grasshopper stepped over the bench, advancing on us. We backed off, now being completely surrounded.

Manny let out a whimper of fear as the grasshopper came closer. What was going on? The bird should have struck by now.

Hopper made straight for Manny, and started throttling him by the throat; Gypsy grabbed Hopper by an arm, and strained to pull him off of Manny.

I chanced a glance upwards, and our patience was finally rewarded.

The bird came down out of the hole, heading straight for us.

We heard the echo of a cry through the blow horn inside the bird as it come closer. We all looked up at that, including Hopper, still maintaining his grip on Manny.

'Aahhhhh!' yelled Hopper, letting go of Manny and Gypsy, who backed off. He let out one continuous yell as the bird came closer.

We all ducked, and it just missed us, looping over us. The grasshoppers looked absolutely terrified.

'Bird!' shouted Hopper in fear, pointing up at the bird, as it flew upwards. 'It's a bird!'

The bird looped upwards in the air. It probably felt like an e-ticket ride for those inside. I saw it start to turn around for another attack.

We heard numerous yells, as the colony played along with the fake scare, and began running everywhere, yelling fake yells. The grasshoppers also ran around, only they were actually yelling out of fear.

'Yes!' whooped Atta, leaping over the bench, and running around with the rest of the colony.

We all smiled at each other, before we too started running everywhere, also yelling out in fear.

As I ran through the crowd that was running everywhere, I saw Blip and Flash glance briefly at each other, give a short, curt nod, and then began shining their butt lights up into the sky, to help the bird find its way through the dark.

As everyone was running everywhere, doing everything to play along with the scare, the bird came in again. It made straight for four grasshoppers that were together. They ducked, tripped, stumbled and rolled in the dirt as the bird's beak just missed them. Getting up as it flew upwards, they looked terrified.

'Let's get outta here!' yelled one of them, taking flight over the looping tree root, his buddies beside him. It was working, for four were already gone! Unless something bad happened really soon, this would work perfectly!

The bird looped around, its wings beating as it made for two other grasshoppers. They fell forwards as it flew over them, yelling out in panic.

'Don't let it get me, don't let it get me!' moaned Hopper to the pudgy grasshopper, for he was hiding behind him. The bird, as if it had heard him, darted towards them, letting out another echoed yell.

'Help me!' said Hopper, falling down with the pudgy grasshopper, as it flew over them. 'Aahhhhh!'

As I continued to jog around, I felt the Queen lean briefly out of my shell from behind. She laughed along as we kept running.

Changing course again, as I couldn't help watching what was going on while I continued to play along.

The bird flew around again, flying over the circus wagon as Hopper cowered behind the pudgy grasshopper around the wagon. As the bird looped overhead, I saw Slim grin. He then splattered a red berry all over his eye.

As the bird looped just over his eye, he jumped in fake pain. Running around in panic, he came up to Hopper and his friend.

'My eye!' moaned Slim, pointing at it, which looked like it was bleeding, even though it was just berry juice. 'Help me!'

'Aahh!' yelled Hopper, running to the side, while the pudgy brown-shaded grasshopper, covered his mouth with his hands, looking like he wanted to puke. Hopper then came up right in front of three ants covered in fake blood, moaning out in fake pain.

'Aaahhh!' he yelled, running from them, and coming right up right in front of Heimlich, who was also covered with the fake blood, but with a twist – his head appeared to be missing. Letting out another yell, Hopper ran off the other way.

Heimlich popped up his head, and licked some of the berry juice off his head.

'Mmmm,' he said thoughtfully, 'Boysenberry!'

Looking to my right again, I saw something bad – the bird was heading straight for the circus wagon. It veered left, but too late –

It hit the wagon at full force, knocking it over. The two separate parts landed on the ground, as the various circus equipment was scattered everywhere.

Including P.T., as he rolled free of the spider web. Grunting, he watched as the bird looped around in the air again. He let out a gasp, standing up, as he then looked to his left.

'Uhh, oh-ho, the pain,' moaned Manny, covered in fake blood, as he collapsed on the ground. Manny mourned over his body, as the two nearby grasshoppers ran for it.

'There goes my magic act!' moaned P.T. He looked around, and then leapt over to the match box.

'Flaming Death!' he yelled, lighting up a spare match against the side of the box. He then leapt through the air.

'No, P.T.!' shouted Slim, but to no avail.

P.T. landed on the bottle of flammable liquid, shooting it out of the opener. He then held the match in the path, turning it into a shot of fire. The fire hit the rear of the bird, as it looped over P.T. It was now on fire, making it look clearly fake!

'Yeah, a direct hit!' he cheered, as it flew upwards. He whooped leaping up and down for a second.

Me and the other circus bugs watched as the bird still flew around, as though nothing was wrong. How could Flik not notice?

He appeared to – the bird's wings drooped, and it stopped looping. I fell downwards, swinging everywhere by the rope that had being holding it up this whole time. Many ants stopped running and looked up at the haywire bird, pointing.

Hopper, who had been just about to run, also saw. He snarled, realising he had been tricked.

The rope of the bird was suddenly detached, and it was heading straight for the ground right by us. We quickly scuttled out of the way as it flew past the broken circus wagon.

With an almighty "WRENCH" it crashed next to the anthill, pushing up the soil particles. It moved up a bit, before finally stopping, as one of the wings fell off. The fire at its rear clearly illuminated it now.

Atta gasped, next to Francis and Slim, looking at the wreckage.

'Dot!' she gasped, running forwards to it. We and the various ants ran forwards as well.

* * *

**Approximate Movie Running Time: 67:10-74:18**


	8. Willpower Of An Ant

CHAPTER VIII: WILLPOWER OF AN ANT

As the wreaked bird lay there beside the anthill, the flame at the back slowly burning the leaves to cinders, the colony and the circus bugs, along with I, all ran forward. This was pretty bad.

As Atta just reached the broken wing on the outside, the Blueberries leapt out of the beak of the bird. Coughing and spluttering, they made their way over to Atta.

'Where's Dot?' asked Atta, as the Blueberries gathered around Atta. 'Had anyone seen Dot?'

Dot just got down from the bird's beak, and had just turned around – when a brown claw swiftly plucked her up from the ground.

Holding Dot as she whimpered silently, Hopper stepped forward, while the remaining grasshoppers watched from the anthill, with some ants behind them. We were in the main crowd, where the rest of the colony watched.

'Whose idea was this?' yelled Hopper at the crowd. 'Huh?'

None of us moved or made a sound. The only sound was the fire, but we could all feel the burning hate radiating from Hopper's exoskeleton.

'Was it yours, Princess?' spat Hopper at Atta, advancing on her.

'Just get behind me girls,' mumbled Atta, standing in front of the Blueberries, as Hopper came closer, 'it'll be okay.' As Hopper came closer, Atta looked nothing short of petrified. Hopper was right in front of Atta, when...

'Leave her alone, Hopper!' said a voice from inside the bird. Hopper whipped around at these words, his face full of vengeance.

Flik leapt out of the bird beak and, without waiting to glance at anyone else, he glared at Hopper.

'The bird was my idea,' he shouted at Hopper. 'I'm the one you want!'

Hopper instantly released the whimpering Dot, who scuttled over to Atta, and he snapped two of his claws.

Flik was still glaring at Hopper, when the mutant grasshopper landed behind Flik, and kicked him forward a few feet. Flik landed beside the bird's broken wing, when the brutal grasshopper darted around Flik, making him look around in a panic. He kicked Flik again, making him land an inch forward, in front of the crowd.

The grasshopper leered over Flik, as he tried to dodge. The crowd was watching, when –

POW! Atta and the Blueberry scouts gasped as Flik was hit again.

WHACK! The other circus bugs and I shrunk back as Flik received another blow.

TWANG! The pudgy grasshopper, unlike his fellows, who were enjoying this, groaned as Flik received an even worse blow.

Flik was finally flung forward onto the ground, his body full of bruises. The brutal grasshopper braced his wings, leering over Flik again. Hopper then re-snapped his claws, and the brutal grasshopper stopped, breathing heavily with a mutant gnarl.

'Where do you get the gall to do this to me?' spat Hopper with a touch of defiance, as he further approached Flik. Flik sure was in trouble now.

'You were,' stammered Flik, using his hands to press himself up, barley able to speak, 'you were going to squish the Queen.

The colony gasped at these words, many looking at the Queen, who was at the front in the middle of the council ants.

'It's true,' said Dot to Atta, who looked especially shocked. Hopper rolled his eyes and folded his lower arms.

'I hate it when someone gives away the ending,' he said, walking towards Flik. He then raised a spare claw. The brutal grasshopper kicked Flik again, who fell forward in the dirt. Hopper drew closer.

'You piece of dirt,' spat Hopper at Flik. 'No, I'm wrong. You're lower then dirt. You're an ant!' He leaned in for those last three words.

Flik didn't move, other than slightly fluttering an eyelid. Hopper then stood up, and spoke to the crowd again.

'Let this be a lesson to ALL you ants,' he said, pacing in front of the crowd. 'Ideas are very dangerous things.

'You are mindless, soil-shoving losers,' he almost roared, as he passed a collection of ants that were shivering where they stood.

'Put on this earth to serve us,' he finished, now facing several ants. But then...

'You're wrong, Hopper,' groaned a voice. Hopper turned around, looking a little puzzled.

Flik slowly stood up from the ground, briefly leaning on his knee for support. Moaning slightly, he turned to face Hopper, taking a brief breath.

'Ants are not meant to serve grasshoppers,' said Flik.

Hopper glared again. He slowly began to take footsteps towards Flik, which everyone could hear.

'I've seen these ants do great things,' said Flik to Hopper,' and year after year, they somehow manage to pick food for themselves and you.'

Many of the ants were looking shocked at these words, partly because Flik was standing up to Hopper, but mostly because of what he was saying. I could also see. What the ants needed all along was to believe in themselves.

Atta made her way to the front of the crowd, looking shocked and admiring of Flik.

'So-So who's the weaker species?' said Flik to Hopper, as he came within a centimetre. Flik breathed heavily, still gaining his strength back.

'Ants don't serve grasshoppers!' yelled Flik, as Hopper came even closer, looking angrier than ever.

'It's you who need us!' finished Flik, as Hopper came right up in front of him.

Hopper then looked around at the colony, who were muttering complete murmurs of assent. Hopper looked a little shocked at what they were doing.

'We're a lot stronger then you say we are, said Flik to Hopper, making the scarred grasshopper look around at Flik, blinking in puzzlement.

'And you know it,' said Flik to Hopper, pointing at him. 'Don't you?'

Hopper lashed out at Flik suddenly, knocking him to the ground. Hopper pressed one of his feet on Flik's back, making his collapse fully on the ground, his limbs lying beside him. Hopper then raised his foot to squish Flik – and Atta ran in front of Flik, glaring silently at Hopper, while Flik turned his head to watch.

Hopper chuckled, and lowered his foot down, leaning in to Atta.

'Well, Princess...' he said, making Atta lean backwards slightly.

'Uh, Hopper, um...' said the pudgy grasshopper nervously, while his fellows were getting more apprehensive by the second. 'I hate to interrupt, but uh...'

Hopper turned to look at what Molt was talking about – and his eyes then stretched wide at what he was seeing.

The entire colony, along with the other circus bugs and me, were all glaring at Hopper. Many were shaking with anger. Almost all had their fists clenched. And we were all ready.

'You ants stay back!' snarled Hopper, pointing a steady claw at the colony. Without waiting, the front line of ants locked their arms together, ready for a fight. Rosie, Gypsy, Manny, Slim, Heimlich and Francis did the same. The back rows slowly did the same. And, with this fight, the enemy was hopelessly outnumbered. I distinctly saw Tuck and Roll sneak off through the crowd, but I barely noticed.

The 15 or so grasshoppers started taking steps back; none of them looking even remotely brave now, especially the pudgy one, who held his limbs in like a little nymph.

'Oh, this was such a bad idea,' he mumbled, as they retreated further. Looking puzzled again, Hopper turned back to Atta.

'You see, Hopper,' said Atta to the villain, in an almost smug manner, 'nature had a certain order.' Atta then buzzed just above the ground, now level with Hopper and his half-puzzled, half-fearful expression.

'The ants pick the food, the ants KEEP the food,' said Atta right in his face, making sure he got the message, 'and the grasshoppers LEAVE.'

At this, the colony let out one continuous yell and charged straight at the grasshoppers. I buzzed in the air, as the other circus bugs helped in the charge.

The grasshoppers turned to run, except the pudgy one, who had his hands over his eyes. He looked up to see the incoming horde – and flinched so much, he left behind his skin flake. He ran to the side and through the grass stalks, while his skin flake model was bounced above the crowd as they charged.

'I'm so proud of you, Flik!' said Atta, helping the bruised hero up, and helping him limp forwards to see what good he had caused.

'_Charge-A_!' shouted Tuck and Roll, leading five other ants in a roll move down the side of the anthill at the enemy.

'Where are you going?' yelled Hopper at the grasshoppers as they ran past him. 'They're just ants –' and then Tuck and Roll bounced on Hopper, knocking him down, followed by the five rolling ants, and then the charging colony.

Looking down from where I was floating in the air, I saw the brutal grasshopper land in front of Dot, making her scream briefly. He leered in at her, but she stood up to him, smacking him on the cheek.

'No!' she commanded at him. 'Bad grasshopper, bad grasshopper, go home!' I knew then to intervene. The time of me retreating to the sidelines was now gone

The grasshopper flexed his body parts in an attack – and then I landed behind Dot, and let out a deafening roar that was reminiscent of something from 65 million years ago.

The grasshopper stretched his eyes wide in panic – and then, whimpering like a dog, took flight after the other grasshoppers, who were flying over the tree root. I then raised my front right foot, and I let Dot slap her hand against it.

'Yeah,' she said, while I chuckled. We then looked at the crowd of ants, as they closed in on Hopper, who was the only one left.

'Come back, you cowards!' he yelled after his fellows, as they grew fainter against the moonlight. 'Don't leave –' and the crowd of ants grabbed Hopper, and he was held on top, struggling.

'To the cannon!' yelled Flik, holding Hopper by his abdomen.

'To the cannon!' chorused the crowd, moving towards the offering stone.

'No!' screamed Hopper, but his attempts were fruitless. I hovered above the crowd as they walked towards the cannon, which several ants readied by the stone. Heimlich, Francis and Slim walked on the right of the crowd, with Manny and Gypsy on the left. Hopper yelped as the crowd squatted around the cannon, shoving him in. He squirmed as Flik and two others raised the cannon, and then stood back.

In the crowd, Manny, Gypsy and P.T. (who was on Ymri, while he struck up a finale drum roll) pointed behind Hopper. Hopper looked behind him, just in time to see me land on the stone. I waved a spare leg, and chuckled my characteristic chuckle.

Hopper looked forward at Flik and Atta, who were right in front of him. While Atta clapped along with the crowd, Flik raised an arm in a brief salute.

'Happy landings, Hopper!' said Flik. I raised myself on the edge of the offering stone, preparing to jump on the cannon and send Hopper away – when lightning suddenly struck in the distance.

'Huh?' I said, looking up. The cheers of the crowd died away instantly, as many looked around curiously, including the trapped Hopper. Flik looked past Hopper, under the offering stone.

A barely audible noise suddenly grew louder from behind me, as it approached. And I knew it was the only unstoppable thing – nature. Flik's eyes were immediately ridden with panic.

'Rain!' he yelled, turning around and grabbing Atta's hand. But the crowd had only just turned before –

THUNK!

The rain struck, sending ants everywhere, and knocking the cannon to the side. As the rain missed me while I looked around, the ants ran everywhere, as the rain closed in on them from all directions, being everywhere the eye could see.

It hit the ground at one point, sending ants tumbling everywhere. The crowd was heading for the anthill, getting in as quickly as they could. But the rain hit them there too, sending them rolling down the side. The rain still struck everywhere, as the bird's fire grew smaller against the moisture.

Down on the ground, Hopper used his four limbs to push himself up, and he looked ahead. In the middle of the clearing, Atta rushed to the side of Flik, who was on the ground. She rested a hand on his head as he looked at her. Hopper growled in hate. He was going to get Flik!

Before I could do anything, a rain drop struck the offering stone, sending me flying. I flew through the air and landed down on – the cannon!

Flipping myself up, I saw Hopper launching himself upon Atta and Flik. Clubbing the Princess aside, he flew off and upwards, as Flik screamed for his life. But we couldn't let him die!

'Quick! After them!' commanded Slim, as Francis picked him up, and followed Hopper. Without waiting, I scooped up Rosie, Tuck and Roll, and clasped Heimlich in my six legs.

'Yaaah!' the caterpillar yelled, as I overtook Francis and closed in on Hopper.

Flik yelled in panic, as Hopper flew right into the tree's dead twigs, swerving as he realised we were on his trail. He gnarled, while Flik screamed, as I kept flying after him, Francis behind me. Hopper wouldn't get away from us, not here. We had the advantage – a reason to keep believing. Hopper swerved left and right as I kept on his abdomen, while Flik was yelling out in panic the whole time.

Suddenly, I heard Francis stopping, but I didn't dwell on it. I was Flik's only hope now.

Hopper flew up and forwards, and I mimicked his actions.

'Ah-Ahhh!' yelled Flik, as we buzzed over a thick branch, already halfway through the tree's twigs. 'Help, Help, HELP!'

'Get him!' ordered Heimlich from in between my legs. On top of me, Rosie hoisted up Tuck and Roll, spun safety web from her abdomen around their waists, as shot them at Hopper

'_Ga-Hee_!' said Tuck and Roll, popping open on Hopper's thorax. They instantly grabbed his antennas and pulled.

'Aahhhhh!' screamed Hopper, veering left and right, while still holding onto Flik. Tuck and Roll were spitting gibberish, and Hopper's antennas were reaching breaking point.

'Y-Yes!' mouthed Hopper, putting on a burst of speed, and flying on, pulling us with him via the web roped Rosie had secured to Tuck and Roll. He was flying straight for a spot where three twigs criss-crossed. No!

Too late – he flew straight through it, but I stuck fast.

'Gae!' chocked Heimlich. And then –

'_Whaow_!' splattered Tuck and Roll, as the web ropes reached breaking point, and they were catapulted backwards. They swung below my face, as I struggled against the twigs, but they wouldn't budge.

'No!' yelled Flik in defeat, as Hopper flew out of the twig maze, and was consumed by the darkness.

Below me, Roll was chuckling with something he was holding.

'_Ida-shida-viado_!' grunted Tuck at him.

'_Ve-musto..._' said Roll back, bringing out an antenna – Hopper's antenna.

'_Oh, ha, ha ha_!' responded Tuck, as they both chuckled and laughed at it.

'Come on!' stammered Rosie. I strained against the twigs that I was stuck in, but they barely even shifted.

Suddenly, I heard buzzing behind me. It was Francis, with Slim. Behind him were Manny and Gypsy.

'Hold still, Dim!' whispered Gypsy. Manny, Slim and Gypsy grabbed my shell plates, and they pulled. I wobbled slightly, and then...

I jerked free. Rosie quickly pulled up Tuck and Roll again, and unsecured the web roped, tossing it aside. The two pill bugs re-squatted themselves between my head and thorax.

'Let's go!' ordered Rosie. I veered around the branches, and off into the dark, bleak night, with the rain still pounding everywhere, and the other three around me.

We all looked in, but they were nowhere in sight. I let my head droop. We'd failed. Flik – me, in a way – would be dead by the time we found him, and Hopper would just attack the colony again with more orthopterans. All our efforts were now wasted...

'Wait!' gasped Slim, pointing. Looking, I saw too. Across the riverbed, only just in our range of vision, I saw Hopper leering over Flik on solid ground just after the flooded riverbed. He appeared to be throttling the poor ant.

We had only just started to fly in their direction, when the bird, the real bird, suddenly appeared over the bird's nest. We all froze, watching.

Hopper didn't move – he appeared to think the bird was another fake. Still holding Flik, he waved at it as it came closer. It then let out a loud, piercing cry, blowing Hopper's remaining antenna in the wind.

He screamed, letting go of Flik. He turned to run, but the bird leapt over him, landing in front of him. Whimpering, he tried to duck around it, but it wouldn't let him. He turned around to flee, and tripped – and then the bird snatched him in its beak. As he screamed, it flew overhead, and hovered above its nest, where three yellow chicks hopped up and down, chirping.

Meanwhile, Atta emerged from behind a rock, and helped Flik up again. They both moved sideways, and crouched down, watching. We flew closer, keeping an eye on Hopper.

'Ah, no!' he yelped, as the chicks chirped. Flik and Atta winced, and looked away. We did the same.

We heard Hopper let out one long, piercing scream, the chicks chirping and... Then it all stopped. We opened our eyes, and saw the bird settling down in its nest, on top of its sleeping chicks. It was over.

We flew closer, landing silently on the edge of the land. Flik and Atta looked around, and noticed us.

'Come on,' I said to the pair of them. Smiling at each other, they made their way over. Slim took Tuck and Roll in his grasp, giving room on top of me. Flik helped Atta up, and then he climbed up himself.

Glancing one last time at the bird, we took off, flying back to Ant Island. The rain was starting to relent, and everything was now fine.

I smiled to myself as we approached the anthill. Flik had found something important... we all had.

* * *

**Approximate Movie Running Time: 74:19-80:48**


	9. Don't Mourn The Lost

CHAPTER IX: DON'T MOURN THE LOST

We heard the ant's blow horns going off all over the island, for it was now time for us to take our departure. I slowly edged my way through the crowd of ants around the open wagon, where P.T. was saying some stuff to Flik, standing on the upturned wastepaper basket. Several of the other circus bugs were receiving thanks from some ants.

'Oh, you're too kind,' smiled Gypsy, accepting a pretty flower, while Slim said various stuff to the crowd.

'All in a day's good time,' remarked Manny to the many thanks they were still getting. I was just walking past Rosie now, quite hopeful that it would work.

'Dim...' said Rosie slowly to me with a suspicious grin.

'Aw...' I moaned, opening my shell. The six kid ants that had being hiding there also moaned, as they got down and slowly walked off. I had been enthusiastic to them wanting to tag along, as most of them were a lot like some my kids. Strange, that it wasn't painful to even think about them anymore...

'Oh, I'm so sorry kids,' said Rosie thoughtfully too, as the kids moaned, 'I wish you could come along too...' But they were barley upset compared to Blueberry Scouts, who were hugging Francis from all sides, and then were almost crying, including Dot. He too had undergone change, as they had touched his feminine side, which had been hidden deep within his shell, hard wings and exoskeleton.

'I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna cry,' he said to himself, hugging the scouts, while nearly crying himself. And meanwhile...

'_U-ee sukia wa_!' announced Tuck gesturing to Roll, who was facing away. Roll turned around and spoke more gibberish, while twitching with Hopper's antenna – all that was left of him. They were entertaining several ants be the wagon's side.

Roll then poked Tuck repeatedly with the antenna, and they broke into hysterics, laughing as several ants gave claps they were drowned out by their voices.

'Hey, let's go!' interrupted P.T., 'we got a schedule to keep! Come on –' the five rolling ants rolled as one up the wagon's flap into the back compartment, saying "hey" all the time. They were coming along too – not that any of us minded, but P.T. saw potential in them as acrobatics partners to Tuck and Roll.

'Hey Tiny,' yelled out P.T., 'let's get this show packed up; we got paying customers hatching!'

'Yes, Mr. Flea!' said the pudgy grasshopper, climbing up into the wagon's back with several pieces of stationary. 'Yes sir, of course sir, right away sir!

'And, um, I just want to thank you for giving me a chance, because it's an honour to work with creative giants –' P.T. wordlessly gestured to the fireflies, who started to close the flap '– such as yourself!' The fireflies slammed it shut with a slight bump.

'Shutting up,' came the orthopteran's voice from inside the wagon. P.T. then leapt on top of the wagon with his standard "plink."

'You're sure you can't come on tour with us?' said P.T. to Flik, facing him.

'Sorry,' shrugged Flik, blissfully aware of Atta coming up behind him. 'My place is here.'

'Good answer,' said Atta to him, squeezing his hand, while he grinned at her.

'Eh well, your loss,' said P.T. in an uncaring manner. 'One minute, insects!' he yelled to the crowd at large, before leaping to the wagon's front, and hitching up the centipedes to their reins. I walked up beside Rosie, Tuck and Roll on the wagon's side that was facing the colony, with Francis, Slim, Manny and Gypsy beside Rosie. Flik and Atta came up in front of us, as the colony watched one last time.

'I want to thank ALL of you,' began Atta slowly, as Dot jogged in beside Flik, and the Queen, along with the council ants, waited behind Atta on her other side, 'for giving us back out hope, our dignity... and our lives.'

'And to you, Princess Atta,' said Slim kindly, stepping back a bit, you have given us so much.

'Please accept this gift,' he said, while Gypsy passed Manny a leaf, and he stepped forward with it, 'from us bugs to you ants.' Manny approached Atta, and created dramatic suspense with gestures, making Atta look surprised, before...

'For you,' he said, bringing out a rock from behind the leaf, and handing it to Atta, while Slim, Gypsy and Francis assumed poses of suspenseful surprise.

'Oh,' chuckled Atta nervously, taking the rock and holding it briefly, while Flik and Atta grinned at each other, 'it's a rock...'

Francis, Slim and Manny clasped each others hands and chuckled. I wasn't sure, but I had a feeling that thing of Dot and Flik's wasn't unlike mine and Rosie's "dim to bright" concept...

'What's with the rock?' croaked Cornelius to Thorny.

'Must be a circus thing,' shrugged Thorny. They both seemed to take it in their stride. I noticed Dot giggle to Flik before he stood up and faced us.

'Well Flik,' said Rosie, stepping forwards, 'you really goofed up.' She then broke into a tearful smile. 'Thanks...'

'Yeah,' said Flik nervously, almost lost for words. 'You too...'

There was a brief pause before Rosie clapped for Flik. As I smiled cheerfully too, the other circus bugs did the same. Startled, Flik turned around to face the colony.

Atta, Dot, the Queen and the council ants clapped for him also. Flik looked like he was going to explode with happiness, when the rest of the colony started too. He smiled in happy surprise as he received many cheers and hoots.

As we kept clapping, the crowd moved closer, so the happiness radiated between us all. Flik fidgeted nervously with his fingers, until they were softly taken by Atta.

She leaned in to his face and gave him a soft cheek kiss. It may have lasted for ever, but it really only lasted half a second. The crowd got even feistier at this.

Then, the Queen pulled off Atta's leaf tiara from behind. She gasped, turning around. The Queen placed Atta's tiara in her hands. Atta smiled as she knelt down. The Queen plucked up her own flower crown and put it on Atta's head, as the crowd cheered even more loudly.

Atta got up, feeling the crown, and her new position, as Flik clapped too. She glanced at the tiara she was still holding, before tossing it into the air.

Dot buzzed up from the ground and caught it spot-on on her head. She giggled to herself as the crowd cheered even more enthusiastically. P.T. was sniffing to himself, watching the scene from atop the wagon.

'All right,' he said, failing to regain himself, 'now it's getting mushy. We're outta here!' Grunting, he whipped the centipedes, and they started to bring the wagon out of the clearing. Rosie, Slim Tuck and Roll were already on top of the wagon. As the crowd waved, Francis, Gypsy and Manny flew alongside the wagon, while I buzzed to the front of it.

I clasped my legs around the front handle and lifted it up into the air, the centipedes hanging below by their reins.

'Wow...' said one kid as we flew over the tree root.

'See you next season,' called Rosie to the crowd.

'See ya, Flik!' cried out Francis.

'Bye,' said Rosie again, 'we miss you already!'

'You're fired!' cried Roll, waving.

'You're fired!' cried Tuck, also waving.

Slim then gasped. 'We forgot Heimlich!' It was true; Heimlich had vanished after a while. But there he was inside a wobbling cocoon attached to the tree root. It wobbled as the crowd kept waving.

It suddenly opened, and Heimlich's face was peeking out of it.

'I'm finished!' he said happily. 'Finally, I'm a beautiful butterfly!' He groaned, trying to squeeze himself out, and then he was half-out, and then he fell to the ground. He looked exactly the same, except he was a slightly darker shade of turquoise instead of the usual light green.

He looked at a colourful orange/white spot on his back. He concentrated in tension, and then it split open into a tiny pair of wings.

'Mein wings!' he exclaimed. 'Oh, they're beautiful!' He flapped them, but didn't move off the ground.

'Heimlich!' cried Flik, as he and three other ants grabbed Heimlich by a corner each. 'The wagon's taking off, you'd better start flying!'

'But I am flying,' he wailed, as Manny and Francis buzzed down. They both grabbed his front and back respectively. 'And from way up here, you all look like little ants!' Francis and Manny lifted him off the ants into the air.

'Auf wiedersehen!' said Heimlich, as they came level with the wagon I was flying.

'Here we go,' said Manny, waving as they flew behind the wagon as I started to cross the shallow river..

'Bye,' cried Flik, waving. Queen Atta and Princess Dot buzzed beside him, and lifted him into the air by an arm each. They buzzed up to the tree root, and the three of them landed down there. They all waved enthusiastically, looking very cheery.

Directly below them, 16 ants in groups of four were clad in Flik's stalk cutter machines. Thorny was at the front, also wearing one.

'Present stalks!' he cried, stopping and facing forwards. All the ants behind him, turned around, so the grass stalks in their machines were facing the other way.

'Harvester salute!' he cried. Four of the harvester ants let loose the catapult function of their stalks cutter machines. The stalks flew into the air above the tree root and hit each other in pairs, exploding into confetti-style remnants, just as I got halfway across the riverbed.

The rest of them got shot, and exploded as Flik looked around awed, until his eyes fell on Atta. They smiled at each other, and then held hands.

The two of them, Dot, and the whole colony waved harder than ever as the last catapulted grass stalks collided. We finished crossing the riverbed. Smiling to myself, I raised the wagon higher still, as I finished crossing the riverbed, and started to traverse the grass plains.

Now we all knew. It wasn't just the fact that, together, we could do anything. This had all given us so much more then that – even more then making me realize that you can't stop change. It gave us belief in ourselves, but most importantly – it gave us a new beginning.

I knew now to not mourn the lost any more. They didn't want it, I'm sure. Insects are born and die, after all. It's the way of life, and, much like change, it can't be stopped.

We would meet again one day, but I wouldn't try to make that day come sooner. I'd enjoy what I have.

Rosie climbed on top of me, and held the two web-bound pebbles again. I'd keep them too. They would remind me to keep believing – they would remind me of everything I'd learned so far.

It wasn't the end, though. For the end is the beginning... of a new adventure.

* * *

**Approximate Movie Running Time: 80:49-84:52**


	10. Outtakes For The Amused

CHAPTER X: OUTTAKES FOR THE AMUSED

**Outtakes**

Shot: b12_38 Take: 8 Date: 2/18/98 Location: Infirmary Chapter: You Can't Stop Change

Director (off-screen): Marker!  
Rosie: Whoa, Flik honey._  
Rosie chuckles._  
Rosie: We are NOT about to –_  
From off-set, the noise of set building can be heard – very loudly._  
Rosie: Is someone hammering?_  
Slim sighs an irritated sigh._  
Rosie: Can we hold the work, please, people?  
Slim (overhead): Am-Am I in the shot? You-You can see me, right?

* * *

Shot: b17_75 Take: 5 Date: 7/3/98 Location: Main Set Chapter: The Pain Of Rejection

Atta: And, uh, thank you for finding 'em, Flik.  
Flik: Me?_  
Flik turns to Atta – and their antenna get hopelessly entangled together._  
Flik: Oh, uh, uh –  
Atta (gasping): Ow, ow ow!  
Flik: Oh, oh no._  
Flik tried to untangle their antenna, but Atta winces even more._  
Atta: This really hurts. Can we cut?  
Flik: Oh, I'm sorry.  
Atta: Ow!

* * *

Shot: b8_49 Take: 9 Date: 4/9/98 Location: Main Set Chapter: A Stroke Of Luck

_Dr. Flora leans towards a male ant extra next to her._  
Dr. Flora: So, is there a Mrs Ant you have to tunnel home to?_  
She touches the ant – and it falls over. It was just a cardboard stand painted to look like an ant._  
Dr. Flora: Ooh, I'm Sorry! I thought he was real!_  
Dr. Flora glances again at the knocked-over cardboard cut-out, and smiles._  
Dr. Flora (chuckling): Oh, dear. Put that thing in my car.

* * *

Shot: b22_78 Take: 4 Date: 6/4/98 Location: Main Set Chapter: The Path To Victory

Slim: Oh, I – Ow, my eye!_  
He scraped off most of the berry juice, but is still in pain._  
Slim: No, seriously, I've got berry juice in my eye. It stings! Stop acting, I'm serious!_  
Hopper chuckles, watching Slim. Slim walks past him, off-screen._  
Slim: Oh, shut the camera!

* * *

Shot: b24_76 Take: 6 Date: 5/6/98 Location: Main Set Chapter: Willpower Of An Ant

_Thumper yells at Dot, but them he relaxes._  
Thumper: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. C-Can we cut? It's just that I-I don't think I'm coming across._  
He strokes his chin in thought. The boom can be seen on-screen._  
Thumper: Hmm. Oh, I know, I know. I could lather up a bunch of spit. Ooh, ooh. That's good. I got it, J.L._  
He leans back down again to retake the shot._  
Thumper: All right – one more for me!

* * *

Shot: b5_95 Take: 12 Date: 6/30/97 Location: Circus Chapter: Disaster For The Clowns

Director (off-screen): Speak! Marker..._  
An insect slaps the clapperboard shut on-screen, and then retreats to the side._  
Director (off-screen): Action!  
P.T. Flea: Spinning a web of safety, in less, then 15 –_  
P.T. bounces off the camera, and falls down, knocked out.

* * *

_

Shot: b7_34 Take: 6 Date: 7/11/98 Location: Bug Bar (Bug City) Chapter: A Stroke Of Luck

Director (off-screen): OK, slate... Marker..._  
An insect slaps the clapperboard shut on-screen, and then retreats to the side._  
Director (off-screen): And... Action!  
Slim: Francis!_  
He leans in to the ladybug._  
Slim: Your boyfriends from the ci –_  
Slim breaks out laughing at something we can't see._  
Slim (laughing): I'm sorry. He has... something in his nose!_  
Everyone else laughs as well. Francis turns around, as we see a small stick of wood wedged up his nostril._  
Francis: What?_  
He then notices the wood piece._  
Slim: Makeup!

* * *

Shot: b9_11 Take: 3 Date: 1/25/98 Location: Main Set Chapter: A Stroke Of Luck

Director (off-screen): Action!_  
Dim buzzes down towards the camera for the shot. As it gets closer, Heimlich squirms but – he squashes up against it, blurring the image.  
Heimlich groans – twice.

* * *

_

Shot: b5_76 Take: 19 Date: 6/28/97 Location: Circus Chapter: Disaster For The Clowns

Director: And... Action!_  
Saying words that rhyme with "up" repeatedly, Tuck and Roll flip themselves into a totem pole – only for Roll to overbalance, making them both fall forward._  
Tuck: Ha ha!  
RETAKE_  
Saying words that rhyme with "up" repeatedly, Tuck and Roll flip themselves into a totem pole –but Roll misses Tuck's head, and hits the ground head first. The squabbling duo break into unintelligible hysterics._  
RETAKE_  
Saying words that rhyme with "up" repeatedly, Tuck and Roll flip themselves into a totem pole –but Roll goes above the screen and doesn't come down. A brief pause._  
Tuck: A-bie-heiso!_  
Tuck looks around, at the camera, and then pauses in confusion.

* * *

_

Shot: b8_2 Take: 12 Date: 9/8/97 Location: Sky Chapter: A Stroke Of Luck

Director (off-screen): Marker._  
Francis is flying Slim through the sky on the way to Ant Island – when a small bug suddenly flies down Slim's throat. He gulps and then chokes._  
Slim (choking): Wait, stop. I think I swallowed a bug._  
Slim chokes more, while Francis chuckles as the camera shot stops panning.

* * *

_

Shot: b10_68 Take: 6 Date: 2/5/98 Location: Riverbed Chapter: The Power Of One

_Heimlich yells in terror as the bird approaches. It pauses briefly, opens its beak, leans forward, and then stops moving. As Heimlich is pulled off-screen, the robot bird, creeks upwards and falls backwards with an eerie squeak. Heimlich re-appears._  
Heimlich: Ooh! Dus this mean we can break fur lunch?  
_The bird stops moving with a final, loud creak, attracting Heimlich's attention.

* * *

_

Shot: b7_31 Take: 9 Date: 7/10/97 Location: Bug Bar (Bug City) Chapter: A Stroke Of Luck

Tuck: A-mimmie moo! Sshh-sshh!_  
He inhales deeply – and burps. Roll chuckles and burps too. Tuck burps louder still. Roll burps really loudly.  
Tuck does one, long, loud burp. Roll concentrates – and then farts._  
Rosie: OK – can we stop?_  
Tuck and roll laugh it off, while Rosie scuttles off-screen._  
Rosie: Get me Cindy on the phone, will ya?

* * *

Shot: b8_1 Take: 4 Date: 9/7/97 Location: Sky Chapter: A Stroke Of Luck

Director (off-screen): Okay, action!_  
Heimlich is secures in Dim's legs as he wolfs down a leaf. Looking around he spots another leaf. He bends out to grab it – and falls out of Dim's grasp, letting out a Wilhelm scream._

_

* * *

_**Approximate Movie Running Time: 84:53-91:02**_  
_


End file.
